Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year
by 70k1d0k1
Summary: High School AU. Out of everyone Tina happened to already know in World Academy, the one nobody seems to notice might be the one she was meant to meet. Mainly Matthew/Tina -OC!Philippines- but with some other complicated relationships all around.
1. Prologue: Just a Nightmare

…**Is it bad that my first fanfic is a High School AU? O_o… **

**Disclaimer: **Hetalia doesn't belong to me. If it did, it would be less historically accurate and more….um…yeah… Tina and Juan (Philippines) are my OCs, but there are a lot of those around… Grieta (Belgium) is an OC by my RPer friend.

* * *

"_What do you mean you don't want to be friends anymore!?" Antonio almost screamed, getting off his chair so fast that it crashed into the hardwood flooring. "What did I do wrong, Tina?"_

"_I-I…" Tina started stammering. The twelve-year-old hadn't properly planned out her explanation, but she had to end this. "You won't let me be friends with anyone else!" she tried to scream back, but it came out like a whimper. _

"_And what? Now you're gonna be friends with that American kid?" he asked, making a contorted expression, not looking directly at her. Tina knew that Antonio had been getting into fights with Alfred, but she was going to side with Alfred this time._

"_At least he doesn't bully Juan!" she started to argue back._

"_Oh, so this is about your little brother." Antonio interrupted, as if he understood the whole situation now. "If you're going to stop being friends with me for your bother's sake, you should think about _yourself_ more!"_

_She just stared at him. Tina hadn't expected him to say something like that._

"_It's all Juan's fault anyway. _He's_ the one who won't be friends with _me_!" he continued. "After all those times I spent with you guys, teaching you and taking care of you…" Antonio turned to her, reaching out his hand to her, making Tina feel guilty._

_At that moment, Alfred burst into the room, fist heading straight into Antonio's stomach. He had barely dodged, but was quick to return the blow. The two started fighting as Juan jogged into the house, obviously winded. He didn't say anything and neither did Tina. They watched the fourteen-year-old slowly get overpowered, until suddenly he stopped and said he gave up. Alfred hesitantly backed away as Antonio turned to head for the door._

_Tina was sure she saw a tear streak down his cheek. But soon everything got watery. She had finally gotten Antonio to leave her, but Tina couldn't help but cry. _

…

Tina squinted as the sunlight shone in through the window. She had just woken up, fortunately not falling off the top bunk of the bed. Her roommate, Grieta, was already up, preparing her books for class.

"I wasn't sure if I should wake you…" the blonde Belgian girl said, deciding not to tell Tina that her crying had woken up the light sleeper.

"Sorry… I just had a nightmare." Tina said, wiping the residual tears with her sleeve. "I guess I should start getting ready for class too."

She climbed down the bunk bed and got her towel and toiletries, heading for the dorm bathrooms. Tina had been going to World Academy for two months now, transferring in as a sophomore after Juan, a year younger than her, applied and got in. Everything was new here, but at least she had a steady daily routine now. Mind preoccupied, she stepped into the showers, thinking back to what had happened after that incident four years ago on her birthday.

After that things got a bit better. Alfred didn't visit them as often as Antonio did, but somehow he was still able to keep other kids away from them. It was starting to feel like a repeat for Tina, but she couldn't help but let Alfred do what he wanted. There was just something about him… Juan, on the other hand, completely idolized Alfred and didn't even care that he mostly only got phone calls from his so-called "hero" instead of the daily visits Tina was used to Antonio paying them.

But at least Tina still had Kuya Yao, who lived nearby and always made sure they ate properly and had what they needed. The older Chinese boy had been taking care of them even before Tina and Juan met Antonio. There was also Kiku. She was never sure if she should call him 'kuya' or not since she couldn't really tell how old he was.

Realizing she had been thinking for too long, Tina hurried to finish her shower and continued preparing for her morning classes. Back in her room, she found that Grieta had left her some waffles to save Tina the trip of going down to the cafeteria. She ate heartily, glad that she had such a considerate roommate, and upon finishing, took her books and headed for her first class.

* * *

**Author's note: **There's not much history in this story. There's a little bit if you squint hard enough. Once your eyes are closed, you can just imagine it there.

Oh, and don't mind the fact that I made two OCs for the Philippines…it works out better in my head that way.

'_Kuya_' means 'older brother' in Tagalog. It can be used for people who aren't related too, like with '_onii-san_.'


	2. Chapter 1: Maple Crème Cookies

Chapter 1: Maple Crème Cookies

Today wasn't Tina's best day… She had woken up late, crying because of a nightmare. She managed to make it to first period without any problems. But then again, she spent the whole forty-five minutes staring out the window, watching an interesting scene unfold.

Apparently, Victoria had decided that today was nice enough morning to spend out in the courtyard instead of in class, and had sat down by the big tree near the main entrance. It was already bothering Tina enough that the Seychellois freshman was skipping class, but then Francis came into the picture, starting to talk to Victoria. Tina couldn't hear anything except the boring drone of a lecture from inside the classroom, so she strained to see what was happening. Francis leaned on the tree, conversing nonchalantly with Victoria, who hadn't bothered to open here eyes since she was enjoying the sunlight that streamed from in between the leafy roof the tree provided.

It seemed like nothing was going to happen, but Tina knew enough about Francis to be at least a little bit concerned. She felt compelled to shout "Don't talk to the creeper!" out the window but didn't want to cause any disturbance in class or feel any more like a bad student, not paying attention to class. Tina couldn't help it; she had already taken _Theory of Knowledge_ before. So she had to hold herself back and pretend like it was the beginning of one of the dramas she sometimes borrowed from Yong Soo. But then Victoria suddenly sprung up from her patch on the grass and started rummaging in her fish-shaped book bag like she had forgotten something. She then pulled out a plastic container of food and offered it to the French senior. He was a bit taken aback, not having expected the offer, but took the food anyways, recovering swiftly. Francis opened the container only to find that it was half empty. Victoria quickly explained something, as if in a panic, but then smiled afterward as if it was all okay. Tina couldn't tell if Francis was angry or not because the enraged face subsided almost immediately and was replaced by that of defeat. Sighing, he replaced the cover and offered a hand to lead Victoria somewhere, maybe back to class as Tina hoped.

Tina turned her head back at Mrs. Karpusi who had just finished explaining absolute, relative, and subjective truth, and had began passing out a list of essay topics to the class. This time, Tina had to pay close attention since the topics change every year. After reading through the list, she decided that she'd write her essay on _"Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth" (Pablo Picasso). Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form (for example, visual arts, literature, theatre)._ Unintentionally picking one of the few topics that needed research to make any sort of valid point, Tina felt that she should get started on the paper soon, even though Mrs. Karpusi was giving them a whole week to finish it.

"Hey Tina! Don't we have lunch now, or did I get my schedule wrong?" Alfred asked, confidently confused, as he began walking along side her. Instead of going to the cafeteria, Tina had decided to head to the library for lunch to do some research.

"No Alfred, we do have lunch." she began explaining. "I'm just gonna start that essay for TOK so I was gonna go to the library this period."

"You're starting it already? I heard Mama Karpusi gave you guys a week for that." Grieta entered the conversation, having caught up to Tina and Alfred in the hallway.

"I just want to get it out of the way as early as possible. These AP classes have way too much work…"

"Well, aren't you going to eat first?" Alfred frowned, in joking exaggerated concern.

"I'll be back before lunch ends," Tina smiled. "I'm just looking up a few things. See you guys later!" She waved as the others turned around to head back to the general direction of the cafeteria. "Oh, and thanks for the waffles, Grieta! And make sure Alfred doesn't get Juan to eat more of those burgers for lunch!" Tina added. Grieta looked back and gave Tina a thumbs up, grinning, while Alfred stopped in his tracks and turned.

"You know you like those burgers just as much as we do!" he shouted over the crowd that was forming in the hallway, earning him a few exasperated glances. It was true; she did develop a liking to hamburgers, but she always made sure not to eat them all the time like Alfred did. But she didn't say anything and Tina just continued walking towards her destination, in a better mood than this morning. But the lighter mood didn't last long as Tina was greeted by the tall Swedish junior glaring down at her as she entered the library, effectively scaring her. Even after his smaller, more pleasant companion had tried to explain that "Berwald didn't mean to stare" and that it was just "how Berwald's face always is," Tina still felt a little worried.

After leaving Berwald and Tino, as she had learned their names were, she headed straight to the Renaissance literature section of the library, figuring that it would be a good place to start. A little overwhelmed by the number of good books that she could use for research, Tina took a deep breath and started to pick out a few titles. Before she even finished one row of shelves, Tina already had a high stack of books, mostly in a reasonable length, but a couple being ridiculously thick. She hadn't realized how many she had been picking out, so she decided to find a table so she could sit down and sort through the books. Walking through the aisles of bookshelves, Tina continually glanced at the sides of the stack she was carrying to make sure she wouldn't bump into anyone and drop her books. Nevertheless, she ended up walking straight into somebody, spilling both their piles rather violently.

"I'm so sorry!! I didn't see you at all!" Tina began apologizing before she noticed the blonde, bespectacled young man kneeling on the floor along with their books. "Alfr--?" she almost asked, but then caught herself. "I mean, Matthew, are you okay?"

"Ugh, I'm not Alfred I'm--" he began, but then stopped in surprise, looking up at Tina who had already stood up.

"Matthew, right?" she continued his sentence for him, holding out her hand to help him up.

"Uh, yeah. But how did you know I wasn't Alfred?" he wondered, not accustomed to being recognized, as he grabbed her hand and pulled himself up.

"Alfred wouldn't be carrying a stack of books in the library even if he was a librarian." Tina answered. "Besides, he should be in lunch right now."

"You're right." Matthew laughed quietly. Now that he was up, Tina noticed that he was a little more than a head taller than her, exactly like Alfred was. His height, his build, the shape of his face, the shade of golden blonde his hair was; everything was the same actually. In fact, he looked exactly like the boisterous American except for the slightly longer, wavy hair and the seemingly different shade of blue his eyes were.

"A-ah, you must be Tina." he said a little flushed after he noticed her scrutinizing him. Their hands were still holding, so Matthew just shook it as if the situation was normal. "I've heard a little about you from my brother."

"Oh, yes…Yes! I'm Maria Christina Gabriella de la Cruz." she responded, snapping out of her observation session, suddenly feeling embarrassed for being so rude. They let go of each other's hand suddenly and began collecting the mess of books on the floor.

"So…um…sorry I bumped into you again. I really didn't see you." Tina said sincerely, breaking the awkward silence after a minute.

"It's okay. It wouldn't have been the first time that happened to me." Matthew said, smiling reassuringly at her. "There was even that one time nobody knew I was in the room and Ivan sat on me."

"_Ivan Braginski _sat on you?!" Tina asked in disbelief. "And you didn't break any bones or anything?"

"Haha, no I didn't. Contrary to what I look like, I'm actually pretty strong."

"Well, actually, you _do_ look quite durable." Tina stated, conscious not to stare at Matthew like before. By the time they got up, Matthew had insisted to carry most of Tina's books since he had less to begin with and she thanked him as they made their way to a table next to the History section. They sat down across from each other and Tina started to sift through her pile of books.

"So which topic did you pick for your TOK essay?" Matthew asked after watching her flip through pages for a few minutes.

"Oh, I picked number…wait, how did you know I had an essay?" Tina asked, a little surprised. Matthew smiled weakly at her before telling Tina that he also took TOK.

"You probably didn't notice I was in the same class, did you? You seemed preoccupied with whatever was outside the window anyway." he began to say, but stopped when Tina continued to look shocked. "Sorry, I didn't mean to watch you or anything. It was just kinda funny."

"What was funny?" Tina asked, still a little confused. She didn't think Matthew would've been able to see Victoria and Francis; and even if he did, nothing particularly funny happened.

"The faces you were making." he explained. "You're pretty expressive for such a quiet student." Tina blushed a bit, not knowing that she had made faces that whole time.

"Y-you should pay attention to the teacher during class. You shouldn't be watching people making faces!" Tina said defensively but quietly. She remembered they were still in the library, even though not many students were there. But Matthew just chuckled lightly as he took something out of his bag.

"As an apology, here," he laid a plastic baggy on the table between them. Inside were three maple leaf-shaped cookies. "They're maple crème cookies. Since this is your lunch period, you should eat something."

"Oh, thank you." Tina hesitantly took one out, torn between the rule of not eating in the library and her self-imposed rule of not turning down food. "I don't think we should eat in the library though…"

"Don't worry. Practically nobody even goes to this part of the library. Besides, nobody seems to notice when I do it." he responded, taking out a cookie for himself. Tina nodded and tasted the cookie before eating the rest of it heartily.

"T-this is delicious!" she exclaimed. The maple crème cookies were totally different from the chocolate chip cookies she usually made and the Oreos Alfred shared with them sometimes.

"The crème is made with maple syrup that surely brings happiness to the people who eat it." Matthew said with a smile, as if he was advertising the maple syrup.

"You're right. I feel really happy now!" Tina said, having forgotten all about her research for her TOK essay. The two began talking about anything that came up, creating a train of thought that went to a variety of places unrelated to each other. Eventually, they ended up talking about having to deal with Alfred, one of the strongest things they had in common.

"He doesn't even notice he's littering sometimes." Tina continued, referring to how Alfred tries to throw his empty soda cans into trash bins like he was playing basketball. "I always end up having to throw it out properly for him."

"Yeah, I even set up a separate recycling bin at home during the summer, but he just threw away his trash without thinking." Matthew sympathized, obviously understanding since he lives with the hyperactive American.

"Oh, it's good you've set up recycling. In my house, we make our own fertilizer for my plants."

"That's cool. What do you grow?"

"Just some vegetables: tomatoes and the like." Tina answered, remembering how Antonio really liked tomatoes.

"I'd like to try growing something other than house plants, but it's mostly cold where I live, so it wouldn't really work out." he complained. Matthew told Tina about the weather in Canada, so she also explained how there was tropical weather in the Philippines.

"Maybe you should visit during the summer one day, Matthew." she offered. "Just don't come during the rainy season or you might experience some flooding or typhoons." Just then, the bell ending the period rang. Matthew and Tina were unfazed for a short moment, just laughing, before they began gathering their stuff together. They rushed to put all of their books back, taking a bit longer then they should have since they tried to stay alphabetical. The second bell, marking that they should already be in their next class, rang just as Tina and Matthew made their way out of the library.

* * *

**Author's ramblings:**

Haha, I don't know how this chapter started out mostly descriptions and ended up mostly dialogue.

Seychelles' name is Victoria Leone Prideux. It seems to be a popular name other fanfics have for her. I got the idea for that weird scenario with Francis from RPing. I might write a chapter [or even a oneshot story] on it when I get the time.

Oh, TOK…(^_^;)

I don't know why, but in my head, since Canada never gets noticed, he can actually get away with a lot of things. Not that he'd take advantage of that…a lot…but yeah (^w^) By the way, MAPLE CRÈME COOKIES ARE DELICIOUS!!! My dad brought some home one day since one of his coworkers just came back from a meeting in Canada, and I've been hooked ever since \(*A*)/

I realized the prologue was actually really historical…but this one really isn't. At all…(O_o)


	3. Chapter 2: Just like Ate Tina

Chapter 2: Just like Ate Tina...

Today was a great day for Alfred: burgers were for lunch! Grieta had stopped by one of the Junior classrooms to wait for her brother Johannes. Since they'd both probably have to go look for their oldest brother Daniel, Alfred knew he had enough time to get as many burgers as he could for lunch before Grieta, under Tina's request, would stop him. Overexcited, he practically ran to the cafeteria, almost knocking down some students by the stairwell. But even after all his rushing, the cafeteria was already crowded when he got there. "Why did everyone have the same lunch period anyways!?" Alfred thought, but then the familiar waving arm of Tina's younger brother caught his attention.

"Kuya Alfred! Over here!" Juan shouted over the crowd as Alfred made his way to the table. Feliciano Vargas, the bubbly Italian freshman that was Juan's roommate, and Ludwig Beilschmidt, the protective sophomore who was always where Feliciano was, were already at the table also. "I didn't know when you'd get here, so I already got you some burgers in case they ran out." Juan continued.

"You're the best, Juan!" Alfred exclaimed as he patted the younger boy's head. He was glad that he didn't have to line up for food now, but he had hoped Juan had gotten him more, even though there were four for him already. "Hm? You only got yourself two, Juan?" Alfred asked, looking over at the Filipino's tray.

"Of course he did. He knows how bad too many of those are for the body." Grieta stated, having caught up to the group, and sitting down at their table. Her two older brothers also sat at the table, effectively filling up the empty spaces. Alfred frowned at the comment, although he continued to chew his second burger. He was planning to get up and get more after he finished since he knew he wouldn't be able to eat extra once Tina got there.

"Uh, Grieta, where's my sister?" Juan asked, noticing that Tina hadn't come to lunch with either Alfred nor Grieta.

"She decided to go to the library to get some research for a paper she's doing."

"But she'll be here soon, right?" Juan knew Tina had always placed importance on family meals and such, so she didn't miss lunch often, even for schoolwork. She also wasn't one to miss meals.

"Don't you worry, Juan," Alfred said, lightly punching the boy in the arm. "She said she'd be here in a few minutes."

"Ve~ But doesn't Tina get really into her work when she starts?" Feliciano asked, eating his pasta. Where did he even get the pasta from, anyways?

"Don't speak with your mouth full." Ludwig said sternly. "Anyway, Tina is a punctual person. If she said she would be here in a few minutes, she will be here soon." he continued, ending the conversation. But as lunch continued, Tina never came down to the cafeteria. When the bell rang, Alfred gathered his things and just told Juan that he'd ask Tina why she didn't come to lunch. They had class together next. Alfred went to Biology and sat by his window seat and waited for Tina to get to class so he could ask her what she took so long doing. But class began and the seat in front of him remained empty.

Five minutes into the class, while Mrs. Hassan was explaining something about yeast being heterotrophs or something, two voices, a male one and a female one, could be heard right outside the door. Mrs. Hassan had stopped her lecture for a moment, while the doorknob began to turn. Tina entered the classroom, almost shyly, followed by....Matthew? Alfred got a little confused. He didn't think Tina would ever be late for any class (at least not after what happened in the beginning of the school year). And even though he was his brother, Alfred hadn't realized Matthew was in that class with them too. When they had closed the door behind them, Mrs. Hassan had a concerned but strict look on her face.

"Ms. de la Cruz, I would have thought you would be the last person to be late to my class." she said, walking towards Tina and Matthew. "Well, we were talking about yeast cells. Maybe if you can answer a question about the lesson, I won't give you detention." Tina nodded, and Mrs. Hassan asked her what kind of fermentation yeast cells underwent.

"Ethyl alcohol fermentation." Tina answered immediately. Mrs. Hassan smiled (she hadn't taught that to the class yet) and let Tina sit down. When the Egyptian teacher began walking back to the front of the room, Alfred was about to ask Tina about lunch, but then was interrupted by a person who had been unnoticed until now.

"Um, excuse me Mrs. Hassan. I was late too." Matthew said, still standing by the door. "And who are you?" she said, looking at him as if she didn't recognize him.

"I'm Matthew Williams." he said, tilting his head a little to give Tina a look that said 'See, didn't I tell you this would happen?'

"...Alfred, if you're going to come to class late, don't make up names to avoid detention--"

"Mrs. Hassan, Alfred is right here." This time, it was Tina who answered, pointing her thumb to the seat behind her. Alfred gave a little wave when Mrs. Hassan turned to look at him. A little confused, she walked back to her desk and took out her attendance list and looked through it. Finding his name, she felt a bit embarrassed, but began to ask him what kind of fermentation animals underwent.

"Lactic acid fermentation." he answered. Matthew was allowed to take his seat, and Alfred noticed he smiled at Tina on his was to his seat behind Alfred. Alfred turned towards Matthew and was about to ask about what had just happened, but Mrs. Hassan caught him and asked if yeast cells were heterotrophs. He couldn't remember so he had to stay quiet for the rest of the class. He divided his time between trying to take some notes, staring out the window, and staring at the back of Tina's head. When the bell rang, Alfred got up immediately and asked Tina where she was at lunch.

"I was at the library..." she began to answer.

"But you never went to lunch." Alfred interrupted. "Didn't you get hungry or anything? I have some Oreos in my bookbag, if you want."

"I already had some maple crème cookies, Alfred." Tina giggled. She wondered if both brothers always carried around their favorite cookies everywhere.

"Oh."

"Anyway, you should hurry to your next class now. Don't you have Gym next? We have Brit. Lit. now."

"We?"

"Matthew and I."

"Oh."

"Tina, we should hurry up, so we're not late again." Matthew entered the conversation, having finished putting his Biology books away.

"Hey, Mattie, I didn't know you and Tina had met." Alfred asked, as the three began to leave the room.

"Well, we just met in the library today."

"I didn't even realize we had most of our classes together." Tina commented.

"Yeah, I didn't even know he was in our Bio class until today." That was the last thing Alfred got to say before the other two nodded and had to walk the opposite way. Alfred sighed as he watched Matthew and Tina walk away. Today was a bit confusing, he thought, but at least he knew they were doing Baseball during Gym today. After getting changed in the locker room, and exchanging banter with Arthur Kirkland, who was on the other team for Baseball (it was sophomores against juniors), the students began to walk out of the building to get to the Baseball field. On the way towards the door, Alfred noticed some students in the front of the line looking into the open door of the indoor track field with amused faces. Once Alfred passed by the door, he did a double-take as he realized that inside, Juan was running frantically around the track. It wouldn't have been so unusual since Juan was in the Track Team, but the Filipino freshman was being chased by a medium-sized brown dog. Alfred ran into the field, as Dylan, Arthur's Australian cousin, shouted after him that they need him for the game.

"I'll be right back!" Alfred shouted back. He was now in 'Hero mode.' He tried to run after Juan and the dog, but found that they were running so fast. This made Alfred wonder how much stamina Juan had after all...

"Kuya Alfred! W-why are you here?" Juan asked while still running, a little embarrassed, but not even sounding tired. As much as he liked spending time with his Kuya Alfred, he didn't like having to be saved too much by him. He worried that he could never be 'Hero' like Kuya Alfred if he couldn't even save himself.

"I just saw you on the way to our Baseball game." Alfred answered, panting, trying to catch up.

"Ah. Kuya Alfred, you didn't have to--"

"Why not? That dog...is chasing you!" Alfred asked, getting out of breath. How many laps had they run already? He had only been there a minute or two, but they were going too fast.

"You don't have to worry about that, Kuya Alfred. He always does this..." Juan explained, sprinting at a continued steady speed.

"What? You know this dog?" he asked, stopping to take a breather. Juan continued to run in laps around the track while he explained that Pinatubo was his dog when he was younger. It had always been lazy and sleepy all the time. But one day, the dog seemed to have suddenly exploded at Juan and began chasing him. Since then, Tina had kept the dog most of the time since it always chased Juan on sight. But when they went to World Academy, they had left the dog behind at home.

"I didn't think he'd follow us all the way here." Juan admitted, after finishing his story.

"What!? You guys left him in the Philippines and he _followed_ you all the way _here_?!" Alfred asked, flabbergasted. The outburst made Juan stop running for a moment, but long enough for the dog to jump onto his back and knock him forward. Alfred ran towards Juan, and picked up the dog off from the younger boy's back. Pinatubo began to wriggle in his arms, but he kept a firm grip in case it tried to escape. "What kind of dog is this anyway? I've never seen anything this breed before...but it's not like I'm any expert or anything..."

"We don't really know." Juan answered, sitting up on the floor. He didn't even look tired, and Alfred wondered if the boy even needed any saving at all. "Pinatubo is an _askal_. He's an _**as**__ong __**kal**__ye_, which means 'street dog.' He could be anything and everything."

"Oh." Alfred seemed to be saying that a lot lately. He turned the dog around in his arms to look at it. Pinatubo stared back at him and began to bark at his face. Alfred got startled and almost dropped the dog, but caught it again before it landed on the ground.

"It looks like he likes you--" Juan began.

"What do you mean he likes me? He looks really uncomfortable being held by me right now."

"He's just like Ate Tina..." Juan thought aloud.

"What?" Alfred didn't really hear what Juan said.

"It's nothing, Kuya Alfred!" Juan realized he had spoken aloud before. "Shouldn't you go to your class now?"

"Hm...Will you be okay once I let Pinatubo go?" he asked. Alfred didn't want to leave Juan being chased by the dog too. "I mean, don't you have class right now too?"

"...Ah!! I'm late to class!" Juan realized. "Ate will kill me if I get detention again!" he worried, getting up from the floor and trying to decide what to do.

"Don't worry, Juan. We'll go to Mr. Beilschmidt to explain the situation, so you won't get detention." Mr. Beilschmidt was the Vice-Principal and the academy's disciplinary. He already knew Alfred because of all the times he had gotten in trouble, but hopefully Juan would be luckier. They began walking down the hall towards the Vice-Principal's office when Juan expressed his worry that they'd take Pinatubo away.

"Haha, it'll be fine, Juan! The school allows pets here. My brother even has his polar bear somewhere in the dorms." Alfred explained.

"Wow! A polar bear? A real polar bear? I've only seen those before in the zoo!" Juan said, excited. But then his excitement quieted down when they entered Mr. Beilschmidt's office. They explained what had just happened, while the disciplinary kept his stern face unemotional. When they finished, he sighed and gave Juan a form to register that Pinatubo was staying in the school grounds. Then, when the bell rang, he gave both Alfred and Juan detention for missing class.

* * *

**Blah blah blah:**

Sorry I update so slowly... The problem with having most of the story figured out is that I never feel compelled to type any of it down.. T_T

I thought changing the POV every once in a while would be interesting. Did it work?

For some reason, I'm kinda liking this story in Al's POV...

'_Ate_' means 'older sister.'

Haha, I _had_ to use Oreos: America's favorite cookie~

Pinatubo as a dog was my brother's idea. It represents Mt. Pinatubo, which was discovered to have been a volcano when it exploded [I'm too lazy to look up the dates...]. It's inactive again now, but it's still a volcano...


	4. Extra Chapter 1: Half a Fish

Extra Chapter 1: Half a Fish

The sunlight shone through the window, hitting Victoria like a slap in the face. For once, she woke up earlier than she should have, so her roommate Lakshmi was still asleep. The capable Indian girl usually made breakfast for the both of them, since Victoria had zero percent self-sufficiency with food. But since she was already up, the Seychellois decided to try and find something to pack for lunch. There was a whole fish left-over from Lakshmi's attempt to teach Victoria to cook. She had burned most of he outside, but they found that the inside was well-cooked and tasted decent. Victoria packed the fish on top of some rice she found, but decided not to burn down the dorm trying to cook breakfast. When Lakshmi woke up, she made some simple egg Biryani and the two freshmen sat to eat breakfast.

Victoria decided to leave a little bit earlier than usual. It had been a while since she took a walk in the courtyard. But passing by the senior dorm, she saw some smoke drifting out from one of the rooms. Recognizing the room, Victoria shook her head and began walking away. But barely a second passed when the Brit burst out of his room, cursing about a dysfunctional oven and letting the smoke clear out from his dorm. Startled, Victoria had spun around, only to see Arthur Kirkland in his pajamas, holding a baking tray of what seemed like charcoal. He obviously didn't make the same decision as her regarding breakfast.

"Oh, Victoria! Would you like to try some of the scones I just made?" Arthur asked the moment he saw her. He obviously saw nothing wrong with them. Remembering her own mess with cooking, she decided to try one, even though she knew Arthur had even less skill in cooking than her. But she couldn't even lift the scone from its pan. It took the combined efforts of the junior and the freshman to pry it off.

"It's a little burnt on the outside, so just break it in half and eat the inside." Arthur suggested. But when she broke the thick crust, the inside was a oozing dark brown liquid. They both stared at it, disgusted. Swallowing his pride, Arthur took the scone back from Victoria suddenly, and threw the whole tray away. He mumbled "Nevermind" and was about to go into his room, but the smoke hadn't completely cleared up yet. It was an absolute mess inside, and Victoria wondered how many attempts had he done to make breakfast. Then, his stomach made a loud sound, embarrassing Arthur even more. As much as the usually grumpy British man with thick eyebrows annoyed Victoria, she couldn't help but feel bad for the guy, especially since he hadn't even eaten anything yet.

"Hey Arthur, I have some food. You wanna have some for breakfast?" she offered, taking out the plastic container from her fish-shaped bag. He agreed, but hadn't expected her to have a blackened fish on top of rice.

"It's a little burnt on the outside, so just break it in half and eat the inside." she mimicked from his previous offer. Arthur was unamused, but did as she suggested, hoping it wasn't goopy and liquefied inside. Luckily, it wasn't. In fact, it was quite tasty on the inside. Victoria was satisfied that she had finally succeeded in cooking something, even if it was only the inside of a fish.

"Why are you closing the container, Arthur? You've only eaten half." Victoria inquired when he began packing away his utensils. Was there something wrong with the fish after all?

"This will be fine, Victoria. You packed this for lunch, didn't you? I shouldn't eat more than half of your food." He answered. "Was Arthur being considerate?" she wondered. The thought made her a bit flustered, and for some reason, embarrassed. So she hurriedly put the container back into her bag, and left his dorm, explaining that she was going to be late for class. She left so fast that Arthur didn't have the opportunity to thank her for the food.

She went to her classes, but really wanted to lounge outside in the courtyard. She had window seats in all her classes, so she was able to find the best spot to relax a bit: the big tree by the main entrance. The period before lunch, she was supposed to have Modern History I, so she decided to skip class since the teacher was Mr. Adnan. Once in the courtyard, Victoria leaned on the big tree and slid down into a sitting position. She kicked her shoes off and closed her eyes, enjoying the little bits of sunlight that filtered from in between the roof of leaves. But before she could drift into sleep, she heard a familiar French voice, speaking to her, almost lyrically. Victoria listened to Francis Bonnefoy talk about the fateful coincidence of happening upon her during his free period. When he mentioned that they could eat lunch together next period, Victoria snapped her eyes open and remembered the fish she made. Surely Francis would be proud that she had finally cooked something tasty? She sprang up from her sitting position, and took the plastic container out from he fish-shaped bag for the second time today.

"Try some! I made it last night." Victoria said, handing it to Francis. He was a bit surprised at the offer, and opened the container while Victoria was saying something about the fish being a "little bit burnt on the outside." But when he opened it, he found that there was only half a fish left, and she quickly explained how she gave Arthur some earlier that morning. This made Francis remember how he had woken up to the smell of smoke, assuming that Arthur had burnt his breakfast. So the Frenchman had cooked extra of his own breakfast, only to have the Brit feel insulted by his offer [he had been called a "presumptuous frog"] and slam the door in his face. But Francis snapped out of his flashback, and replaced his scowl with a defeated look. None of this was technically Victoria's fault...besides, now he was a little jealous of Arthur for getting to taste her first good cooking before him. He sighed and closed the container, but then she complained that he was supposed to try some. Francis, smiled, offered his hand for Victoria to grab, telling her that they could eat her cooking together.

* * *

**Fish?:**

I don't know... I said I'd write about this scene, didn't I? It's a little stupid...I think, but I don't really know.

I didn't really know what Indian people ate for breakfast...so I just looked up some stuff and found Biryani, which is a rice-based food made with rice, spices, and meat, fish, veggies, or eggs. I suppose they can eat that for breakfast, right?

I don't really know what burnt scone look like on the inside...so I let my imagination wander.

I know no French, except for "I only know a little bit of French," "I am a potato," and "You are a pineapple."


	5. Extra Chapter 2: First Week of School

Extra Chapter 2: First Week of School

Juan stood outside the door, looking at his feet. The sign on the door read 'DETENTION.' He sighed. His Ate Tina was going to kill him once she found out (and she _would_ find out somehow, if he didn't tell her). But even more than that, Juan was worried that Kuya Alfred would be disappointed in him for getting detention. On the first week of school, no less. He sighed again and decided to walk into the room. He didn't know if you could get detention for being late to one.

"Juan? What bring you here?" Juan looked up from the floor, only to be greeted by Alfred, who was already seated, waving at him. At first, Juan got anxious that Kuya Alfred now knows he got detention, but then that feeling disappeared when he realized that if his Kuya Alfred had detention, it means it was okay for 'Heroes' to get detention.

"Oh, I was late to one of my classes because I didn't know where the classroom was." Juan explained, sitting down next to Kuya Alfred. "By the time I found the room, the teacher, Mr. Adnan was it?, he was already really pissed off."

"Figures it was that Turkish guy. He hates kids."

"Then why does he teach kids, then?" Juan wondered aloud.

"I dunno. Apparently, he took care of a couple of the seniors when they were younger."

"He babysat Elizaveta and Heracles once upon a time." Yong Soo explained, entering the conversation. The Korean freshman had his iPod on the whole time, but he had been listening to Alfred and Juan talking. "Adnan knows Heracles' mom, that's Mrs. Karpusi, and Liz's uncle, that's Mr. Csontváry. All three of them teach here."

"Wow, you know so much Yong Soo." Juan commented.

"He's been going to World Academy since his elementary years. He even stays here during some summers." Alfred pointed out.

"Hm? I didn't know World Academy had an elementary school..."

"You see that little kid over there?" Yong Soo asked, pointing at a small blond kid, around eight or nine-years-old, sitting at the back of the room, playing with a DS. His eyebrows looked familiar. "He's in the Academy's elementary school right now." When he heard mention of him, the little kid paused his game and ran towards the other three, excited that his existence had been acknowledged.

"Hey, hey! What are you guys talking about?" the small child began asking, jumping up and down.

"Calm down, Peter. We were only telling Juan about the elementary school." Alfred said, placing his hand on Peter's head.

"Juan?" Peter cocked his head towards Juan's direction. They had never met before.

"Uh...hello Peter. I'm Juan Andres Samuel de la Cruz." he said, offering to shake hands with the younger boy. Peter beamed, and shook Juan's hands with both of his. Finally, someone wasn't treating him like a little kid! "You're an awesome guy. I'm Peter Kirkland!"

"Kirkland? Are you related to Mrs. Kirkland by any chance?" Juan asked.

"Oh, that's my mom." Peter began, but before the conversation could continue, the door opened again and Wang Yao walked in.

"ANIKI!!!!" Yong Soo shouted, getting up from his seat and groping the older Chinese.

"If I knew you would be here, I wouldn't have agreed to watch over this detention...aru." Yao sighed. Yong Soo let go and pouted, pretending to be hurt. But Yao was just relieved Ivan Braginski wasn't in this detention too. That would have created more problems too, especially since Alfred was in the room. After Yao got Yong Soo to sit back down, the door opened again and in walked Matthew. He went straight to Yao, looking a bit annoyed.

"Some teacher gave me detention thinking I was Alfred again." he said, giving his detention slip to Yao. Then he turned to face Alfred, whom he knew would be in detention at the moment. "Al, you promised me you wouldn't get in trouble so much. I can't keep serving your detentions!" There were very few times Matthew was ever angry, or at least could express it properly.

"Sorry Mattie. I don't even really know why I'm in detention now either..." Alfred admitted. He didn't want to get yelled at by his younger brother. Even though he was usually soft-spoken, Matthew insulted Alfred for three hours once until Alfred cried.

"You can leave now, Matthew." Yao interrupted. He told the Canadian that since it wasn't his detention, he could leave. Alfred would just have to serve two detentions that day.

Tina stood outside the door, looking at her feet. The sign on the door read 'DETENTION.' She sighed. What kind of example would she be to her brother if she got detention? How could she even forgive herself for getting her first detention ever. On the first week of school, no less. She sighed again and decided to walk into the room. She didn't know if you could get detention for being late to one. But just as she was about to take hold of the doorknob, it turned and and door opened. An annoyed-looking blond guy almost walked into her, but stopped just in front of her. His expression immediately softened.

"Oops, sorry." he said, closing the door behind him.

"It's fine." she smiled, being courteous. He nodded at her and began walking away.

"Ve~ Tina, who were you talking to?" Feliciano asked from behind her.

"I...didn't ask his name..."

"Who's name?" Feliciano tilted his head, but Tina didn't know what to answer after that. He reached over and opened the door for her and Tina walked into detention. Everyone turned to look at the door that just opened again.

"Ate?" Juan wasn't sure if it was really her since this was detention. Alfred was even more surprised since she always lectured him on obeying rules, even more that Matthew did. But he managed to say "Welcome to the dark side."

"Y-you...!" she scowled at Alfred's comment, but was surprised at Yong Soo having jumped off his seat towards her, shouting "TINA!!" Alfred grabbed Yong Soo's sleeve, and Yao held him back by the back his collar.

"I didn't think you'd get detention too...aru." Yao started saying, making Yong Soo sit back down.

"Sorry, Kuya Yao." Tina said, taking a seat on Juan's other side. "But I really don't think I deserve this."

"Hm? What is your detention for anyway?"

"I was late to class---"

"Oh, so was I." Juan interrupted. He figured if he told her about his detention while she was talking to Yao, she wouldn't lecture him then and there. But she turned to look at her younger brother and told him that he had to be more responsible and know where all his classes were. He mumbled an apology, and she continued to tell Juan about how she saw Feliciano trip in the hallway.

"He had hit his head, so he wasn't waking up. Nobody else was doing anything, and I could only do so much with my own first aid kit, so I brought him to the Nurse's Office." she explained.

"And when Mama Hassan woke me up, Tina had stayed to wait for me." Feliciano contributed. "Then she dropped me off my Music class. Mr. Beilschmidt gave me detention for being late."

"Which he shouldn't have. You should've explained the situation to him, Feliciano. You didn't deserve a detention. And neither did I!" Tina lectured to nobody in particular. "But that Mr. Adnan didn't even listen to what I had to say! He just gave me a detention the moment I came in!"

"He hates kids, you know." Alfred laughed. He didn't mind having this conversation all over again.

"Then why does he teach kids, then?" Tina asked, exasperated.

* * *

**Meow:**

This was what Alfred was talking about in Chapter 2: "_He didn't think Tina would ever be late for any class (at least not after what happened in the beginning of the school year)._"

Some of this is from a previous RP experience, and the whole scene just became basic back story in my head...

Mrs. Karpusi is obviously Mama Greece, Mama Hassan in Mama Egypt [I figured some student would me more informal], Mr. Csontváry is Magyar, and Mrs. Kirkland is, uh, the Celts? Mr. Adnan is Turkey, of course. Haha, but am I using him as a bad guy too much?

Well, I know Peter is supposed to be twelve...but since everyone's ages were changed to fit high school ages, I decided to make him younger too.

Gah...I was gonna make Matt and Al twins, but then I realized Matt's birthday was before Alfred's even though Al is supposed to be older. So I just made Matt a year younger...but they were in the same grade... I guess Matt's just really smart and skipped a year...or maybe they entered school at the same time? [Don't think about it...]

Also, I assumed even though she only transferred to World Academy recently, Tina and Juan know all the other Asian nations, with some more than others though. It works out since both Yong Soo and Tina refer to Yao as an older brother. But of course, Juan only recognizes Alfred as his older brother. Also, Tina would actually be a little older than both Al and Matt since her birthday is June 12, and both of theirs are in July. The cool this is, since I made Tina's birthday her independence from Spain, I wanted Juan's birthday to be his independence from the U.S., which happens to be July 4 [June 12 had been celebrated as Flag Day, but some people suggested that the Independence Day be moved from July 4 to June 12].


	6. Chapter 3: Perfectly Natural

Chapter 3: Perfectly Natural

Grieta was noticing a great change in her Filipina roommate. It all began the day after Tina didn't come to lunch. In their dorm, Tina had explained that she had stayed in the library the whole time and met Alfred's brother, Matthew. Like Alfred, Grieta only shared a few classes with Tina since Tina was in AP. Nevertheless, every time she looked around the classroom during the classes she had with Tina, she couldn't seem to find that Matthew guy anywhere. During lunch that following day though, Tina approached the lunch table accompanied by a familiar blonde boy. Grieta almost thought it was Alfred, but then realized that Alfred was already sitting at the table.

"Hey guys. This is Matthew Williams, Alfred's brother. Can he sit at the table with us?" Tina beamed, seeming a little bit too happy at the moment. Grieta almost expected Tina to be sulking since she apparently received a detention recently for being late to class for some unknown reason.

"Kuya Alfred, I didn't know you had a brother--" Juan began to say, while he made space at their table.

"...We've met before." Matthew commented, to the surprise of Juan.

"What? Really? When!?" he began to get concerned. This Matthew guy looked so much like Kuya Alfred that it was possible to mistake them for each other. What if he had been mistaking this guy for Kuya Alfred all this time?

"Just once, though," Matthew explained. "Some teacher gave me detention because he though I was Alfred, and I went to detention while the both of you were there." For a moment, Juan seemed to process the information, searching for the memories of that day.

"Ah!" he realized. "You were the fake-Kuya Alfred who was shouting at Kuya Alfred!" Juan accused, nodding to himself that his assertion was correct.

"Juan, don't be rude!" Tina scolded. If there was one thing she knew about Matthew, it was that he wasn't Alfred, and that he was his own person.

"Ah...sorry Ate..." Juan apologized, glancing over at Alfred since he felt that he wasn't wrong. But before Alfred could defend what Juan said, backing it up with how awesome he was, Matthew placated Tina by saying that he was used to comments like that, although this was the first time someone ever called him a fake version of his brother. This made Tina laugh, and Alfred didn't get why. 'Mattie didn't even say anything funny.' he thought to himself. After a few more odd questions directed at Matthew about which classes he took and if he was in any clubs, the conversations steered towards more normal topics while Matthew seemed to blend into their already-weird lunch table. Since that day, Matthew ate lunch with them, except for the days that both he and Tina were missing because they went to the library to do research or whatever it was they did.

The excessive bubbliness and seemingly not torturing herself over the detentions that she slowly accumulated were the first changes that Grieta noticed in Tina. At the end of the day, whenever Tina would get back to their dorm, Grieta always noticed that she would be returning from serving a detention because Tina would be smiling for no reason while she did her homework. Apparently, even though practically none of the teachers noticed Matthew come to class late with Tina, he would usually announce it and be given detention along with her. It was because of this that both the teachers and students started to realize Matthew Williams' existence up to the point that, after a couple weeks, anyone who had any classes with both Tina and Matthew could tell the difference between him and his brother.

Grieta didn't really mind the change in her friend. 'At least Tina seems to be enjoying school more and she's even a bit less uptight about everything' the Belgian would think to herself whenever she saw Tina and Matthew walking together. Tina looked almost more natural next to Matthew than she did when she was next to Alfred. Usually, she'd be exasperated and seemed to lose her patience whenever Alfred said something obnoxious or stupid, but then she would smile and scold him with fake anger. But with Matthew, she seemed more relaxed and generally less frustrated with herself.

Another thing that Grieta didn't mind at all was how Tina was more open about her past and emotions since meeting Matthew. At the beginning of the school year, Grieta had been a little bit disappointed that her roommate wouldn't share any of her secrets or told any interesting stories about her past, although she knew that Tina had once been friends with Antonio. But recently, Tina had been talking to Grieta more and asking her questions about boys. Tina mostly talked about Matthew and whatever great book he lent her or how he could cook perfect pancakes or how he scored most of the goals during hockey games, but Grieta was also able to learn about Tina's complicated past with Antonio, Alfred and Kiku. She was surprised to find out how many of the World Academy students Tina had already known even before transferring. It was no great surprise that Tina already knew Yao and his freshman younger sister Mei, freshman Michael Hong, the Korean brothers (freshman Im Yong Soo and sophomore Im Hyung Soo), Sunan Chalong and Soeur Borey, who were Thai and Cambodian juniors respectively, the Vietnamese Vice President of the Student Council, Hue Nguyen, and even Gema Pertiwi, the Indonesian honor student currently attending World Academy University nearby. But Tina also seemed to have known Arthur Kirkland, his Australian cousin Dylan, and even Ludwig Beilschmidt.

But despite how well Tina seemed to act recently, Grieta was worried that the habit of being late to most classes would result in disaster someday. And that day came while Grieta was watching Mr. Adnan pace across the front of the room, taking attendance in a visibly bad mood for reasons unknown. Almost as if knowing that they would come late, Mr. Adnan stopped at Tina's name on his attendance list and looked towards the door just as she and Matthew were coming into the classroom. As always, Tina apologized for being late, being sincere although it happens regularly now. Nevertheless, Mr. Adnan walked briskly towards the two, and grabbed Tina's arm, pulling her toward her seat, while he fumed about how much he hated kids that had no discipline. Then he forcefully sat her in her chair in the front, yelling at her that she probably meant to be late on purpose and that if this kept going on, he'd make sure she would be expelled and that her grades couldn't save her.

Tina stayed silent, looking at the Modern History teacher knowing that his threat of having her expelled would never follow through, that he probably couldn't even suspend her because the school was very lax, especially since her grades _were_ good enough. This pissed Mr. Adnan even more and he tightened his grip on her arm, making her wince in pain. Alfred stood up, making a loud noise as he almost knocked his desk over, but almost nobody noticed him because Matthew had walked over to Mr. Adnan and grabbed the arm that was holding Tina's.

"Hey, you're going too far!" Matthew almost shouted, glaring at the older man, tightening his grip too.

"Oh, and you too," the Turkish teacher turned to Matthew. "You think just because your grades are good enough you can waltz in here whenever the hell you want!?"

"No," Matthew replied. "But we've been serving our detentions and you're going too far!"

"Hah, I should send the both of you to the Vice Principal!" Mr. Adnan threatened. But Matthew didn't even waver and he talked back to the teacher.

"Go ahead. Try it! We'll tell him how ridiculous you've been, threatening us with expulsion and physically attacking your students!" Mr. Adnan was taken aback, but continued to glare back at the resolute Canadian. But it was the teacher's turn to wince; he hadn't expected that brat's grip to be so painful. With that, Mr. Adnan let go of Tina's arm, and Matthew of Mr. Adnan's. The older man walked over to his desk, rubbing his arm as he took out slips of paper to give Matthew and Tina detentions for being late and interrupting class. Matthew took both slips and stuffed them into his pocket, but instead of walking back to his desk at the back of the room, he bent down to be at eye level with Tina who was sitting down.

"Are you okay?" he asked, voice more gentle, holding the part of her arm that was beginning to turn red, rubbing it with his thumb. She nodded.

"I'm fine, Matthew. Thank you..." Tina was a bit shocked at how fast everything happened. Her cheeks were a bit pink, but she didn't seem embarrassed with the contact, as if it were perfectly natural for the two to be in such close proximity. After a few moments of looking at each other, Matthew nodded and stood up, his hand lingering on her arm until he let go completely to walk to his desk. He walked straight to his seat, seemingly ignoring the rest of the class that had been watching his every move since he grabbed Mr. Adnan's arm.

Alfred was still standing up, also in shock at his younger brother's aggression, and the look in his eyes that almost made him...scary. He only remembered to sit back down in his seat after Matthew had walked past him without looking at him at all. The air seemed to be filled with surprised and all the other students seemed to want to start their usual murmurs and whispers to each other, but everyone hesitated, not knowing how to break the tense silence that had fallen over the class since Tina had said "Thank you."

Still irritated, Mr. Adnan made a grunt to bring the class to the attention of the only sound that filled the room. He assigned a whole chapter of the Modern History textbook to be read for homework and said they could start it now, but also that he'd give detention to whoever said anything for the rest of the period. Twenty minutes later, the bells rang, almost making the whole class jump at the sudden sound. Then, as if the whole incident had never happened, Matthew put away his textbook and walked over to Tina's seat. He touched her shoulder, since she seemed not to have noticed the bells ring as she was still reading the textbook chapter, and the two left to go to lunch or maybe the library. The rest of the class watched them leave, not realizing they could leave the classroom too.

* * *

**Uh...yeah..**

Oh Turkey, violence is never the answer D

Gah, and this chapter made me realize how fail I am at expressing any emotions, whether it be aggression or fluffiness....I don't know D:

Well, this chapter was shorter than the other ones [but that's okay since there's less dialogue and more explanation anyways], but that's because I want the next one to be in Alfred's point of view, but adding the next scene to this one would make it too long...


	7. Chapter 4: The Very Beginning

Chapter 4: The Very Beginning

Matthew didn't think anything could piss him off so much as when Mr. Adnan had grabbed Tina, practically dragging her to her chair. He didn't think he could walk across a classroom so fast as when Mr. Adnan pushed Tina into her chair and yelled at her. The moment she winced in pain, he didn't think he could hold onto anything so tight that he hoped he was breaking Mr. Adnan's arm. And when Mr. Adnan had turned to say something to him, it was as if he couldn't hear what he was saying at all and the only thing he wanted to do was yell back until the older man let go. Matthew barely registered the two detentions he stuffed in his pocket as he leaned down to check if Tina was okay.

If there was one thing Matthew learned after having spent so much time with the Filipina is that she lied sometimes...a lot. Her days were always filled with 'Yes, I have time to help you with that,' and 'I was almost done with my work anyway,' and 'Oh, you can have that last sandwich/cookie/waffle/pancake/glass of juice, I already had one,' and 'You can borrow my notebook since I don't really need to study for this,' and 'I don't really mind cleaning up for today.' The only way Matthew could know if she was lying or not was to look straight into her eyes because she could never lie to him when he did that. He always used this whenever he asked about her day, inadvertently making it a daily habit for the two to just look into each others eyes and talk.

Matthew instinctively held that part of Tina's arm that had just been let go, immediately regretting the decision in case it was hurting her. But when Tina's shoulders became less rigid as she relaxed into the warmth of his hand, he decided that, fortunately, he didn't have to let go. Rubbing his thumb over the area of her arm that was turning red, he made sure to look straight into her eyes.

"Are you okay?" It was a simple inquiry, but it felt like he was asking more than that, Matthew just wasn't quite sure what it was.

"I'm fine, Matthew. Thank you..." she trailed off. Her voice came out too loud, Tina decided, especially since the class had gone too quiet since they came in.

When she said she was okay though, Matthew had been expecting her not to, searching her eyes for any signs of false assurance but could find none. Even though he was standing in an almost uncomfortably awkward position, he had wanted to stay. And although he knew she was telling the truth, Matthew stayed a while anyways, gazing at Tina and the slight pink that showed on her cheeks despite her caramel tan, how her lips had not closed completely after she had answered him and there was a small gap to exhale through, how some of her bangs had fallen across her forehead even though they were too long so she usually tucked them behind her ears, and how, through her thick lashes, her eyes had stared back, watching him too.

Realizing that if he continued to look at her like this, he wouldn't be able to deal with the odd tingly feeling accumulating in his insides and the weird notions that his brain was telling him to do. Matthew nodded to his decision, practically forcing himself to look away from her to stand up and walk away. Not quite being able to let go completely though, Matthew let his hand linger on Tina, his fingertips trailing up her arm as he walked around her and her desk. He could still feel the smooth skin of her upper-arm, the soft cotton of her uniform blouse, and the wavy stray strands of her hair that had landed, almost strategically, on her shoulder even after his hand had fallen back on his side and he was no longer physically connected to Tina.

Setting his eyes on his destination, his desk at the back of the classroom, Matthew walked without looking at anyone or anything in particular, not being used to having people, other than Tina, look _at_ him and not _through_ him like they usually did.

Tina kept staring at her arm, where a slight light-purple bruise began to form. It wasn't the quick, stinging pain of Mr. Adnan's hand closing in or her arm that she felt, but the warmth and soothing gentle hold of Matthew's large hand that lingered even after he had let go and walked back to his own seat. That and his eyes after he asked if she was okay stayed in Tina's mind through the rest of the period. His eyes were like the ocean: a blue that was almost lavender (not that she had even seen an ocean that shade of color before), but it felt so much like swimming in the cool waves of water during dusk after having worked under the blazing sun all afternoon. She had to be careful not to swim too far out lest she drown. But in Matthew's case, Tina thought she wouldn't have minded so much to be submerged in his gaze.

That simile ran through Tina's head so fast whenever she even caught a glimpse of her arm that all she could do was say her usual 'I'm fine' and 'Thank you,' and bury herself in reading the textbook chapter Mr. Adnan had assigned them, seeing the words and pictures but not understanding a single concept in them. She had to calm herself enough so as not to turn around and stare at the Canadian again. Tina knew that the bruise on her arm would subside in a day or two, but she wondered if Matthew's lingering warmth would remain. She hoped it would.

And when the bell rang, Tina knew that it was lunch time. She and Matthew had agreed to go to the library beforehand, and she was waiting for him to lead her out of the room. She sat, waiting, but not turning to look at him while she waited. It started to feel like forever. How long does it take to walk across the classroom? She was anticipating it and yet she was still surprised inside the moment he touched her shoulder. No words were needed as the two nodded to each other, not breaking the silence that still held their classmates in their seats, as Tina packed her books away. Before stepping out of the room, she caught a glimpse of Mr. Adnan, still grumbling at some piece of, probably empty, paper, and Tina almost laughed at herself for being so affected by the events that happened _after_ the Modern History teacher had acted on impulse.

Still immersed in some residual silence from their previous class, Matthew and Tina walked through the crowded high school hallway, effortlessly guided by muscle memory towards the library, unnecessarily through the bookshelves where they had first met, and to the table they had first sat some weeks (had it already been that long?) ago. Even though they hadn't said anything to each other while walking, the two walked side by side, out of habit, with Tina's shorter, brisker strides matching Matthews larger, slower pace perfectly. Reaching their table (and the pair had sometimes mused at how they had claimed the table as their own), Tina and Matthew sat at their usual seats across from each other.

Matthew seemed to deflate into the chair, leaning so far down it that his legs had extended across the underneath of the table and brushed past Tina's, initiating a mini footsie session, stopping only when Tina thought they were making too much noise, although there was barely anybody who wasn't at lunch and they were too deep into the library anyways.

"Are you really okay, Tina?" Matthew asked when he noticed her looking at her arm again. Maybe the pain had only started now that the bruise was fully purple? He was contemplating if it would've been better if they really just told Mr. Beilschmidt about what had happened. But since the school _was_ really lax, and all the faculty were old buddies, not much would have been done for anyone anyways.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Matthew. I just....no, it's..." Tina didn't know how to answer him, looking down at the desk instead . She knew that Matthew probably thought her arm was in pain, but she really was only feeling _his_ hand and not the bruise at all.

"Just what?" Now Matthew knew she was hiding something. "What wrong, Tina?" He reached his hand out, touching her cheek to make her face him. Without noticing it, Tina's hand shot up to remove his, but instead ended up keeping it in place. Realizing the intimacy in their actions, they both turned different shades of pink but didn't change their positions an inch. Time seemed to stop and they seemed to forget whatever they were going to say to each other. Staring into each other's eyes, as was happening too often lately, this seemed to be the longest span of time that the two hadn't said a word to each other... Suddenly, Tina gasped for air (she seemed to have stopped breathing), and they both let go, immediately missing the feeling of the other.

"I....there was nothing...wrong, Matthew." Tina replied to the question long forgotten to him, still not knowing how to answer. "I just, well, the bruise doesn't hurt at all, but I...uh... Thanks, you know, for what you did and all..." She had never sounded so ineloquent before, and all Matthew could stammer was a quiet "Y-you're welcome..."

This was the first time Tina felt that she had been this embarrassed. Well, there were probably other times, but right now she couldn't think of any other moment than the ones that had just passed. Unknowingly, her hand reached back up to where Matthew had placed his on her cheek, and it was then that he realized why she had kept staring at her arm before when nothing hurt. He was even more flustered now, sneaking little peeks at her only to make sure she wasn't looking back at him. She wasn't; Tina had returned to looking at the desk as if it was some source of interest.

'I couldn't possibly have any effect like _that_ to her, right??' he wondered. 'I mean, we've only known each other a few weeks...and I, well, she's just... I'm pretty sure she has someone else she likes, or something... But I never asked before though...'

'I...crap, this can't be it...' Tina argued to herself. 'I have to think this through! Matthew is... Matthew is... He's such an awesome guy! And I'm... I'm just... Didn't Ivan Braginsky's sister like him or something? Gah, I can't compete with...wait, that's not what it was...!'

Breathing in deeply, Matthew decided that just sitting there wouldn't do anything to help him. "Tina?" he asked, being the first to look up. Her head immediately snapped up to face him upon hearing her name. Matthew almost hoped she wouldn't so he'd have an excuse to...wait, that wasn't the point right now. "Do you have someone that you---"

*!!!* the bells rang, cutting Matthew's question off. They had both given a little jump in their seats, surprised by the sudden interruption. They both stood up to take their book bags off from the carpeted floor, getting ready to leave the library.

"If I have a what?" Tina asked, mounting her book bag on her back while they walked to their next class.

"Huh?"

"You're question."

"Oh, never mind...It didn't really matter, anyway." Matthew made a small hand motion as if to make is previous question fly away. The abrupt ringing of the school bells seemed to have blown out what little confidence he had to ask her about her love life. He was a little relieved, actually, after realizing how awkward it would have been to ask. Unlike Matthew, Tina didn't really like to press for details when others seemed to avoid certain topics, but she was sure as hell going to overthink it in the next couple of class periods until after school, when they would go to their regular detentions and hopefully have an opportunity to talk again.

Instead of getting accustomed to Tina having detentions, Yao had instead stayed strict with her, always giving a disappointed sigh whenever she walked into the room as if to say 'Where did I go wrong.' This always made her guilty enough not to talk, even to Matthew, during the detentions Yao oversaw. Luckily, instead of Yao, Mr. Vargas was the one looking over the detention. Even though he was the Principal of World Academy, he was so lax with the students and administration that most people believe that Mr. Beilschmidt was the one actually running everything under the guise of Vice Principal. Mr. Vargas usually allowed talking in his detentions, and he even specially encouraged Matthew and Tina to talk, usually commenting about something like youth and seizing the day.

"Hey Matthew," Tina began, turning around in her chair and sitting in it backwards to face Matthew who was sitting behind her. "What were you asking me about before, back in the library, before the bells rang?"

The sudden question caught him off guard. Matthew had been hoping Tina had forgotten all about it after two class periods, but instead it seemed as if she had contemplated everything possible so as to be prepared for whatever his previous inquiry was. He hesitated to tell her, but after realizing he wasn't being fair (since he often made her say what she wanted to by looking into her eyes, which now that he thought back to it, embarrassed him that he did that so often), he took another deep breath and repeated the question.

"Do you have someone that you like?"

"I..." Tina began to answer prematurely. She closed her mouth and started to think about her answer, suddenly regretting her decision.

"Haha, it's okay, Tina. It was just a random question..." Matthew tried to laugh off the awkwardness he knew would come. "Anyways, did you get the homework that we---"

"No." she stopped him from changing the subject. "I feel like I have to tell you these things. I mean, everybody needs someone who knows them well, right? And I think it would make sense for me if it was you..." she rambled. "It just kinda makes sense to me that way, you know?" Tina finished, turning to look at Matthew, who had unknowingly been leaning forward in his seat while listening to her. The pair blushed at the proximity and both leaned back.

"Well," Tina said. "I don't know if it'll answer your question or not...but I'll start from the very beginning..."

"...a very good place to start." Matthew added.

* * *

**Blargh:**

I lied. Alfred's POV will come waaaay later... I was just magically inspired by nothing to write this [I kinda realized that I hadn't even written about Tina's and Matthew's feelings or anything at all! D:].

Honestly, this chapter was kinda hard for me to write since I kept squeeing to myself every few words. But hey, it's spring break! \(^o^)/

...are my chapters getting...wordier? D:


	8. Chapter 5: It Would Be Rude

Chapter 5: It Would Be Rude

"Well, when I was a little kid, my dad was always away working and none of our relatives lived nearby enough to keep us company while he was gone. Kuya Yao was in the same neighborhood, so he often came by to take care of me and Juan. He came over almost every day and even slept over sometimes. He always brought stuff for us to play with and even taught us a lot of things too." Then Tina stopped abruptly, as if she had just realized something. "Kuya Yao's not the one I like, mind you" she said, looking at Matthew as if to straighten out a misunderstanding that had never been established. "I'm just giving some you background information is all."

"Haha, yeah, I understand." he said, laughing. It was just like Tina to be thorough even when explaining something personal.

"He was like family," she continued, more exactly. "Like an older brother. And since he had a lot of other kids living in his house, I got to meet them too; a lot of them go to World Academy, you know? That's how I got to know Kiku, Yong Soo, Hyung Soo, Mei, Michael. Hue (You know Hue Nguyen, right? She's the Vice President of the Student Council right now.), Sorey, Savannh, Sunan, and Gema (You know them too, right? I mean, you've been going to World Academy longer then me... Oh, but Gema's in the University so you might not know her) didn't live too far either, so I actually made a lot of friends. We were like a really big family of just kids. Hmm...but I never _did_ find out how old Kuya Yao was. Well, he can't be too old since he goes to World Academy too, right? Anyways, well, when we all got a little older (I must've been ten-years-old probably), I met Antonio."

At the mention of Antonio, Mathew knew that the story was about to change drastically. He had heard about Antonio from both Arthur and Alfred, but he probably isn't all that bad since he was one of Francis' best friends...well, that fact doesn't really help much, actually.

"He had been wandering around our neighborhood trying to make friends with the kids there since he said that this girl, María Rafaela Alvares, had been there before and were friends with a lot of people. He obviously didn't know what he was doing and how he got there, so I invited him into the house. I didn't really know what to say to him the whole time, and personally I felt that the whole thing was a little awkward, but he seemed so happy about meeting someone new that I ended up inviting him to visit again."

Tina paused to look back at Matthew, wondering if she was boring him. But instead, the young man had been leaning in on his desk, genuinely interested at what she would say next, making Tina unexplainably nervous about what she should divulge to the Canadian. Since Matthew didn't ask any questions though, she continued on.

"After we got to being friends, I started enjoying Antonio's company more. He was really cheerful and optimistic about everything; it almost seemed like the sun shone brighter when he was there. He always brought along these new things that he would teach me and Juan how to use, and he even helped Juan with his school work and such. Antonio came over almost all the time and it seemed as if he had become a part of my everyday life."

"So he was like family too?" Matthew asked, confirming his guess.

"No," Tina answered immediately. "He was my first love." she explained, the slight tinge of pink on her cheeks resurfacing. She said this with a straight face, with an almost nostalgic gleam in her eyes, looking straight at Matthew, so he knew she wasn't kidding. He didn't understand why, but upon hearing those words, he felt as if something sank inside of him.

"Oh, well, I guess that answers my question..." he tried to end the conversation, as if trying to cover up the unreasonable disappointment that seemed to have been welling up inside him.

"But the problem with Antonio is that he's dense." Tina's mood suddenly changed to a more exasperated tone. "I mean, _really_ dense! I don't know if it's because he spends too much time out in the sun and it fried his brain or something! Or maybe eating all those tomatoes made him useless, but he was just so, so...GAH!"

She breathed a bit, trying to push away the memories of her trying to confess to Antonio, only to have him say that he loved his "little sister" too. She should've understood that the older boy wouldn't see her in that sense since she was young, but it frustrated her so much back then that sometimes she acted purposely mean to Antonio and told him to leave. Then again, the Spaniard always came back, and sometimes he even stayed anyway.

This sudden outburst of ranting caught Matthew off guard that he almost forgot about the inferiority complex he was starting to develop when he unconsciously began comparing himself to the upperclassman.

"Even worse, Juan didn't like Antonio in the least." Tina continued when she had sufficiently calmed down. "He always complained about Antonio being a bully to him and how Antonio never let him play with other kids. I was actually pretty okay with how Antonio seemed to keep us to himself sometimes, and I was quite sure that Antonio's 'bullying' was only him trying to be some kind of older brother figure to Juan. So I ended up dismissing his claims as exaggerations.

"But one day, while I was watering the plants by the front of the house, a young boy, around my age, stopped by me and asked me if I was Tina. He seemed kinda obnoxious, but he was so childish with his actions that I introduced myself anyways. Do you know who that boy is?" Tina asked, looking back at Matthew, as if the answer should be natural for him.

He was a little confused at how he was supposed to know the answer, but then he remembered that she said the boy was obnoxious. "Was it...Alfred?" he smiled, although he wasn't sure.

"Yup, exactly!" enthusiasm filling her voice. "Alfred told me that he had always passed by my house but never got meet the people living there. He was very straightforward and asked me right then and there if I wanted to be friends with him. I was a bit surprised and told him that we had just met and didn't know each other at all. Then, he mentioned that he had heard about me and Juan from the other kids living nearby. Just then, Juan ran out of the door, probably trying to escape Antonio after he was caught playing a prank. He was about to hide behind me, but then he saw Alfred. They had obviously met before.

"_Ate Tina! Ate Tina! That's him! That's the guy who helped me out before! You know, that time I was trying to get out of the house when Antonio wouldn't let me! He helped me jump out of the window!"_

"_Juan, it's rude to point like that." Tina said, moving Juan's arm down to his side. "And don't you dare do that again too." Then, she turned back to Alfred, trying to be polite. "Ah, you shouldn't joke about leaping out of windows with my little brother. He'll think you're being serious."_

"_Oh, I wasn't kidding around or anything. I didn't actually do much though," he said trying to be modest, not thinking at all that what he had done was wrong. "I only suggested the idea." Alfred had smiled widely though, as if he was proud of being so clever. Tina, on the other hand, had to hold herself back from frowning at the boy who encouraged her little brother to jump out a window, putting him in danger. But she couldn't reprimand a stranger, even though he and Juan seemed to have bonded already. Just then, Antonio burst out the doors, an array of expressions appearing on his face. First, a tired look from looking for Juan, who had obviously hidden and ran from him, then a small but bright smile for Tina who had always been obedient to him, and then an angry expression when he saw Alfred standing by the two Filipinos. _

"_What the hell are _you_ doing here?" Antonio said, with apparent malice. _

"_Well, last I heard, it's perfectly fine to talk to other kids and make friends with them. Though I don't expect you to agree with that with the way you treat your cousin." Antonio had flinched at the comment from the younger boy. Juan didn't really understand what was happening except that someone was standing up to Antonio, but Tina knew Alfred was talking about Antonio's fights with his cousin Carlos. _

"_Tsk. I should've known it was you who's been giving Juan ideas about pranks against me. I can't say the guy didn't deserve it, but it's kinda messed up how you kicked that Brit friend of yours out even though he had been looking after you." This comment both siblings understood, since Kiku had once told them about his friend Arthur and the kid who had sent him back to his own house._

"_Oh, but how could that be if I just met them now?" Alfred asked, his own dislike of the Spaniard starting to show. "See, me and Tina here just became friends." he said, suddenly grabbing Tina's hand, pulling her lightly to his side. Antonio seemed like he was about to explode at this. And he did. He separated the two children's hands and pushed Tina and Juan into the house, trying not to practically shove them in too hard. He then shut the front door loudly, and continued to argue with the American boy in front of the house. Juan was trying to listen through the door, but Tina had pulled him away, mechanically saying that it would be rude to eavesdrop. The younger boy was tempted to lock Antonio out of the house, but he, unlike Antonio, was aware of his sister's feelings and decided not to after he saw how much the fighting outside was bothering her. _

"And that's how I met Alfred." Tina said, as if they were at some kind of conclusion. Matthew had been listening intently because he, despite being close with Alfred now, had been separated from his older brother during their childhood. Alfred had lived with their American father, while their Canadian mother had raised Matthew. It wasn't that they were divorced or separated or anything; their jobs just required so much attention that it was easier to live near work. The two children met often during family gatherings, which included close family friends, like the Kirklands and the Bonnefoys, whose children were like older brothers to Alfred and himself.

"So, what happened after that?" Matthew began to ask, since Tina seemed to pause at that part of the story. But just then, Mr. Vargas announced that the detention period was over and for the students to leave the room. Both Tina and Matthew quickly gathered their things and began walking out of the door, when Tina told Matthew that she'd meet him in at their table in the library, after she dropped off her stuff off at her dorm, to continue the story.

"Why don't I walk you there? My dorm's the same direction anyway." he offered. Tina smiled and took the offer, while the pair walked towards the sophomore dorm wing. She was trying to sort out in her head how she was going to explain to Matthew the next parts of the story, which were very pivotal events in her and Juan's childhoods. But, sneaking a glance at the the taller, blonde, young man walking alongside her, she had no doubt that he would be patient with her conflicting feelings and take the time to understand the whole story.

* * *

**Gah:**

Damn, I was hoping to have finished this chapter by Easter break, like, forever ago...but obviously that didn't happen. I really wanna update more regularly, but I'm really busy with school...but I will continue trying! [I'm throwing in some random history in every here and there now. The thing with how Antonio wants to make friends like María did is like when Spain and Portugal were both trying to colonize other countries around the same time. The fights with Carlos refers to the Spanish tensions with Cuba that started the Spanish-American War, because Alfred is so nosy with other people's business all the time. And Alfred kicking Arthur out is obviously the American Revolution.]

Oh, by the way, thanks for the motivation, darkbutterfly45. I always think my writing comes out a little wordy, but I'm glad someone likes it. ^_^

There's a lot of OCs barely mentioned here too (I won't elaborate coz I'm too lazy...) :

Laos – Savannh Daokham – female, sophomore

Thailand – Sunan Chalong – male, junior

Cambodia – Soeur Borey [surname+given name] – male, junior

Indonesia – Gema Pertiwi [2-word given name w/o surname] – female, University

Portugal – María Rafaela Alvares – female, junior

And some not-so-much-OCs:

Vietnam – Hue Nguyen - senior

Taiwan – Wang Mei [yeah, she's Yao's little sister] - freshman

Hong Kong – Michael Hong [uncreative] - freshman

North Korea – Im Hyung Soo [he's very fanon though] – sophomore

Cuba – Carlos Velázquez de Cuéllar – sophomore


	9. Chapter 6: You're Not Dense

Chapter 6: You're Not Dense

Arriving at the library, Tina and Matthew went straight to their table, as was now habit, and sat facing each other again. Tina had become nervous on the way to the library, though, after realizing that she had already answered Matthew's question...well, part of it. But now he was waiting to hear about what had happened after she met Alfred.

'This...this is Matthew I'm talking to. What is it that I can tell him that he doesn't already know? ...wait..' Tina wondered. "Matthew, did Alfred ever tell you what happened between him and Antonio?" she said, surprising him since he hadn't been expecting a question.

"Well, I know they got into a really big fight a while back, and that Carlos had something to do with it." Matthew answered. "He didn't really mention anything about you or Juan though..."

"Oh," Tina let out a sigh. "Typical of him not to think it was a big deal..."

"Was it, really? Al usually likes to brag about things when they're big deals."

"Well, I guess I understand why he might not have mentioned some stuff..." Tina realized. There was so much more to Alfred's fight with Antonio, and all that happened afterwards, that Alfred probably wanted to brush the whole thing off. "Okay, I'll start from there then. You see, since we met, Alfred visited a lot. At first I thought that he only came when Antonio seemed to be too busy to notice, but then I found out that Alfred came over all the time. He met with Juan when I was with Antonio, and Juan distracted Antonio so Alfred could meet with me. It was weird. I knew that this was the boy that was bringing problems to Antonio and that Antonio would definitely be angry if he ever found out that we were meeting with him, but I just couldn't help going to see him and talking with him. Alfred's one of those people you can't just ignore, you know?"

'Yeah, exactly the opposite of me.' Matthew reminded himself.

"Anyways, Juan was getting really attached to him. He even started calling Alfred 'kuya' and copying him. Since Juan never considered anyone else as an older brother, besides Kuya Yao, I thought it was okay... Except, after a while, I started to notice how troubled the whole ordeal was making Antonio. At the time, Antonio practically lived with us, but he went out often to deal with some family problems. He would always come home late at night, fatigued, and he would look like he'd just been fighting. Although he always smiled at me and told me that everything would be sorted out eventually, I already knew from Alfred that Antonio wasn't going to be able to deal with it for much longer. It scared me, actually, how the happy, simple, everyday life I had been living with Antonio was being disrupted...

"Juan, on the other hand, began standing up to Antonio more because of Alfred's influence. He would always tell me that we'd be so much better off living alone and that we didn't need Antonio 'bossing us around' all the time. Sometimes, he even left home for a whole day or two to spend with Alfred. I tried to discourage him, but I couldn't help thinking that Juan seemed so much happier when Antonio wasn't around..." Tina breathed. She seemed to contemplate how detailed she should go into the next memories. Matthew reached across the table, grabbing Tina's hand.

"And then what happened?" he asked earnestly. Tina looked up at him. 'Yes, this is only a memory. I'm just telling Matthew what happened...it's not like it's happening right now or anything...' she told herself.

"One day," she continued. "I overheard Juan talking to Alfred on the phone, about how Alfred should come over and finally make Antonio leave. They had this odd notion that they were saving me as if I was in trouble or something. The part that scared me the most was that maybe they were right. Having Antonio around all the time made me so dependent on him, so much so that I couldn't even think of how it would be to live apart from him. But I would always be a 'little sister' to Antonio, and I didn't know how to keep living like that either. And Juan seemed to be gone so often; I didn't want him to be miserable or resentful, and he was family.

"So on my twelfth birthday I asked Antonio if he'd prefer living at his own home more, since there were family problems. When he didn't seem to understand why I was asking him so, I blurted out that I didn't want to be friends with him anymore.

"_What do you mean you don't want to be friends anymore!" Antonio asked angrily, getting off his chair so fast that it crashed into the hardwood flooring. "What did I do wrong, Tina?"_

"_I-I…" All she could do was stutter. Tina hadn't wanted him to get so worked up. She didn't really want to stop being friends with him, but if he didn't leave their house now, Alfred would come and make Antonio leave. She had to make him leave, even of she would rather him stay forever. "You won't let me be friends with anyone else!" she tried to scream back, but it came out like a whimper. _

"_And what? Now you're gonna be friends with that American kid?" he asked, making a contorted expression, not looking directly at her. Antonio didn't understand why Tina was doing this now. This was Tina, the good little girl that always let him know what she was doing and where she would be, the little girl who was always so excited when he would visit, and would always be waiting for him no matter how late he came home. He had always thought he would be enough for Tina._

"_At least he doesn't bully Juan!" she started to argue back, saying things that was only influenced by Juan himself._

"_Oh, so this is about your little brother." Antonio interrupted, as if he understood the whole situation now. 'She's doing it again,' he thought to himself. 'She's putting other people before what she really wants.' "If you're going to stop being friends with me for your brother's sake, you should think about _yourself _more!"_

_She just stared at him. Tina hadn't expected him to say something like that. Had he known that she loved him? Had he actually understood? Does he know how hard this is for her, then? How hard it is to tell him to leave when all she wanted was for him to stay. _

"_It's all Juan's fault anyway. _He's _the one who won't be friends with _me_!" he continued. "After all those times I spent with you guys, teaching you and taking care of you…" Antonio turned to her, reaching out his hand to her, making Tina feel guilty. There was Antonio, practically asking Tina to let him stay with her forever, but she didn't reach out to his hand. She couldn't for Juan's sake, and maybe even hers. But she hated herself at that moment, and she hated Alfred for somehow bringing her to want Antonio to leave. _

_At that moment, Alfred burst into the room, fist heading straight into Antonio's stomach. He had barely dodged, but was quick to return the blow. The two started fighting as Juan jogged into the house, obviously winded. He didn't know what Tina had tried to do before he and Alfred got there, but he didn't ask anything and Tina didn't tell him. They watched the fourteen-year-old slowly get overpowered, until suddenly he stopped and said he gave up. That was when Tina's heart broke. 'No, it can't be over already...' she reasoned. Alfred hesitantly backed away as Antonio turned to head for the door. 'No. He can't be leaving...'_

_Antonio turned to look at her one last time before he walked out the door. He gave her the same smile he gave on those nights he came home after a fight and had lost, when he would say everything would get sorted out eventually, but Tina was sure she saw a tear streak down his cheek. She couldn't cry, at least not yet. Not when Alfred was standing there, smiling victoriously at the door Antonio just left from. Not when Juan was standing right next to her, relief on his face, as if some terrible thing had just been taken away. But she couldn't help it. She barely realized the tears streaming down her cheeks until everything was too blurry to see._

But right now, she was able to hold it all in. Matthew stared at the girl in front of him, whose hands he were still holding. He was about to tell her that it was okay to cry right now, but then Tina suddenly lay her head facedown in the desk, her forehead resting on their clasped hands.

"He was right there, Matthew. Antonio had wanted to stay with me, but then all I did was stand there and let him leave." she mumbled into the table. "Even now, I still don't understand why I didn't grab his hand." Tina regretted, squeezing Matthew's hand tighter.

Matthew squeezed back, waiting for Tina to look back up so he could confirm his guess to Tina's question. But when she made no move to change positions, he asked her anyways.

"You're in with love my brother, aren't you?" he asked, trying not to lose his voice.

"...Yes." she finally admitted out loud, to Matthew and to herself. He should've already been used to Alfred being preferred over him, but somehow it still particularly hurt this time.

"Don't look so depressed, Tina. I'll help you out." Matthew offered, already trying to repress his newfound, strong affections for the girl sitting in front of him.

"No," Tina said, finally facing him. She still looked troubled, but at least it seemed like she hadn't cried.

"I already messed that up too." she began again. "A couple weeks after Antonio left, I got to talking to other people. Kiku was particularly happy that Juan and I were going to be more independent. Even Arthur and Francis were okay with the decision. But when Alfred saw me talking to Dylan this one time, he started telling me and Juan that we weren't ready to live alone yet, since we had been so used to having Antonio around, so he would be looking after us from then on. Of course, Juan completely agreed with Alfred, but it just made me so angry. I had completely thrown away my chances of being happy with Antonio because they had convinced me that we were better off alone, and yet here was Alfred, trying to do the same exact thing as Antonio.

"I got into a lot of arguments with them, but I kept backing down in the end because I didn't wanna tear apart our household, which I was practically running by myself anyways. Alfred made a deal with me then, that after a while, when Juan thought we could be fine by ourselves, he would let us live alone without argument.

"I agreed and what followed was two years of Juan learning all of Alfred's skills and bad habits while I kept the house together, trying to avoid Alfred. It probably sounds stupid of me, but although I was so angry with Alfred back then, I couldn't help but gradually start talking to him and following him around again. It was almost if there was a kind of peace again in our house, but I still kept waiting for Juan to show signs of wanting to be the 'man of the house.' Still, I didn't expect him to tell Alfred himself that he was ready to look after the both of us himself. Both Alfred and I were about to start high school after that summer, so maybe that's why Juan thought it was good timing, but as far as I know Juan didn't know about my deal with Alfred.

"So, it happened again... Before Alfred left, he asked me if I wanted him to stay a little bit longer, but I refused him and said goodbye. I guess I was a little bit miffed at him that day too, because, even though I acted mean towards Alfred a lot, he couldn't even realize I liked him [Juan told me I was being so painstakingly obvious with my feelings for Alfred]. Alfred acted just like Antonio and was just as dense." Tina sighed. "Since then, he only visited every now and then, and Juan and I got to make other friends. I glad, though, that after coming here, Alfred and Juan are still close. But Alfred still doesn't seem to notice me though..."

"You really care about your little brother, don't you, Tina?" Matthew said more than asked, while Tina nodded, smiling. "Well, aside from that, you seem to have a thing for dense guys." Matthew laughed, somehow accepting the situation a little bit better than before.

"That's not true. I like _you_. And _you're_ not dense."

* * *

**Not dead...yet:**

Finals start tomorrow, and yet I just had to type up and post up a chapter. Actually, expect at least 2 or 3 more chapters in the following couple of weeks since I don't even study/care for finals T_T.

At this point in Filipino history, Juan represents the Filipinos who wanted independence from Spain, and Tina represents the Filipinos that had been privileged from the beginning and didn't think Spanish rule was all that bad. When the Philippines wanted independence from the United States, Tina is the one that fought against Alfred and Juan is the Filipinos who sided with the Americans.

Oh, and excuse the slight copypasta I did in there...

A little bit after Filipino independence from Spain (after the Treaty of Paris), Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo interacted with Japan, England, France, Australia (Dylan Kirkland – male, sophomore), and the U.S.. Alfred was the only one who wouldn't recognize the Philippines as an independent nation.

Haha...even though this is the 6th chapter, this is where it's all gonna start! XD

~(O_O)~


	10. Chapter 7: As Obvious As

Chapter 7: As Obvious As...

I've done it now, haven't I? Ugh, it just slipped out since I hadn't talked to anyone about relationships in a while. It's all Matthew's fault for getting me to open up like this... I shouldn't have told him any of these things anyways! I mean, who even tells the guy she likes about all the other guys she's likes! There must be something seriously wrong with me.

"...What?" Matthew asked, startling me since I almost began to forget he was sitting right in front of me. My head shot up to face him, looking back at me with a weird look on his face as if he was trying to squint through his glasses when he should've been wide eyed.

"I, um...yeah?" I didn't really know what he was asking me now. I'm pretty sure I said I liked him sometime before my head voices began yelling at me for being so stupid. Did he not hear me or is he just messing with me?

"No, I...was just watching you make those funny faces again so I think I blanked out just now. Did you just say what I think you said?" he explained, as if he sincerely didn't understand what had just happened. Just my luck: the first not dense guy I (accidentally) confess to and he didn't even hear me?

"...W-what did you think I said?" So it's not too late to take back what I said? I would feel relieved if I wasn't suddenly so disappointed.

"Uh, well, I don't wanna say it in case I'm wrong. I don't want to be...wrong..." he trailed off, almost apologetically, which he shouldn't be because he didn't even do anything wrong.

"I...it wasn't anything important," I said hurriedly, getting up from my chair and reaching for my book bag to leave. I slung my bag over my shoulder and started walking away from our table. "Oh, look at how late it is already! We won't be able to get dinner at this ra—" Just then, Matthew grabbed onto my wrist, stopping me in my tracks. It was his turn now to keep me from running away. I spun around to face him, as was now habit, and besides, I couldn't ever _not_ look at him. But he didn't say anything and only stared at me with his lips ready but hesitating to tell me something back. We stood there, unmoving for a few moments, before he seemed to gather his thoughts and say something.

"Y-you're right. Wait for me while I get my stuff. I'll go to the cafeteria with you." he said finally, further confirming that he really didn't hear my confession. It's okay since we've only known each other a few weeks. It's too early for me to ruin our friendship with this kind of stuff, right? But somehow it's still deals a blow to my confidence. I don't think 'll be able to tell him again until I've built up some more courage.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't tell Tina I liked her... It's just that she said it "wasn't anything important" so that wasn't a confession or anything? Maybe I just heard her wrong... Unless she means it's not important that she likes me or not. Well, she still does like Al so, she there's no way she could possibly like me too...

"Hey, you haven't left me behind yet?" I said, trying to joke around with Tina as I walked over to where she waited for me. Acting like I was confused, which is how I felt, wouldn't served either of us any good right now.

"I wouldn't even if I could." she said without thinking.

"..." What did she—?

"...Haha! Uh, let's go get dinner now. I'm getting a bit hungry." Tina followed up, after realizing what she had just said. Well, it's not like that meant anything anyway. Yeah, that's right. I haven't really seen Tina talking to any guys so maybe she's like this with everyone? Yeah, that has to be it.

We made our way to the cafeteria in silence, still walking side by side. Once we got there, I held open the door for her like I always did, but there was something different this time. For some strange reason, I was strangely self-conscious and getting embarrassed. Did I always do things like this? I'm pretty sure I do...at at least with Tina. B-but I just realized I liked her earlier today! Had I been unconsciously treating her in a special way all along?

She walked passed me, and for the first time since I grabbed her arm, she looked straight at me, and then said thank you and smiled. But wait...is she blushing? No, that can't be. I've been doing this all the time. Unless she always blushed like that. Well, maybe she didn't really blush. I might just be imagining things. I mean, she only looked at me for a second.

"Hey! Over here!" Grieta waved her arm to catch our attention. She was at the same table where we usually ate lunch with everyone else. But tonight it was just her, Ludwig, and Feliciano. "Oh, so you two came together~" she said as Tina and I made our way to the table. I noticed Ludwig blushed at the comment, and then realized why. I turned pink myself.

"No, Grieta. It isn't anything like that..." Tina tried to explain, although you could tell she understood the innuendo too.

"So, you just came at the same time?" Grieta asked, still smirking as if she knew something we didn't. With that, Tina turned as red as her tanned skin would let her. She, Ludwig, and I tried to pretend that we didn't know what the other two were thinking. And Feliciano just kept eating his pasta [where did that come from anyways?]. Eventually, after a few seconds, Grieta grinned even brighter and giggled. She obviously understood now...

Ludwig coughed, reminding Tina and I that we hadn't sat down yet. Even though there was a lot of space at the table, we ended up sitting across from each other instead of side by side like we usually did. It didn't go unnoticed, but this time, Feliciano beat Grieta to the question.

"Ve~ Tina, did something happen between you and Matthew? You two are acting a little different." Feliciano asked, sincerity in his curiosity.

"O-oh no, Feli. Nothing happened. We were just talking before..." she sounded a little like a single mom trying not to tell her son that she has a boyfriend. Not like Feliciano is Tina's son or anything. And it's not like Tina has a boyfriend either...

"Eehh. That must've been a very awkward talk if you two aren't sitting ne—" he began to point out, but was interrupted by Ludwig.

"Feliciano, you shouldn't prod." the German said, putting his hand on Feliciano's shoulder. But then, for just a fraction of a second, he shot me a look as if he was torn between wanting to know too and not wanting to ask. He really confuses me. Usually Ludwig is very quiet and polite during meals, but every now and then, he says something when Tina's involved. I notice the weirdest things today...

... ... ... ... ...

"So, what did you and Matthew 'talk' about before dinner?" Grieta asked after we barely entered the doorway of our dorm room.

"It was nothing really. You know, the usual stuff..." I tried to answer without really answering.

"Oh, so more things about pancakes, books, and Alfred?" she said, trying to goad a reaction from me. The last part stopped me for a second, but I didn't give her the answer she wanted.

"...Yeah." I said, simply.

"So...you and Matthew were thinking the same things during dinner tonight~ It's like you two are on the same frequency." she changed topics to try and get more out from me. Grieta was obviously aware that something had happened between Matthew and me.

"L-ludwig was thinking it too! Besides, you have to be more aware of what you're saying sometimes, Grieta." I tried to turn it around.

"What~? What I say doesn't have to be like that. It's _you_ guys who make it seem wrong." she explained, her grin getting as wide as the Cheshire cat's.

"But..." I was lost for words. I can't really defend my thoughts against her...maybe I should stop hanging out with so many guys...

"I know, I know. You don't want to seem like a perv in front of your boyfriend." she went again. It almost seems like she just wants to see me flustered.

"I told you: it's not like that...!" I reiterated. I couldn't even confess properly...

"Still! Really, you two are slow at this. Just confess to him already!" she ordered suddenly, as if she was getting impatient.

"I-I never said that I liked him or anything!" I said, as I tried to review all my previous conversations with Grieta to try and find the moments I may have been too obvious. Now that I think about it, I'm really obvious with these kinda of things.

"Oh please, Tina. We're friends, aren't we? You don't have to go hiding it from me~" she said, sighing as she stood in front of me with both hands on my shoulders, as if she was supporting me in some kind of decision.

"...Is it really that obvious?" I asked, hoping that she was only kidding. If I was really that obvious, would Matthew already know then too? Alfred probably wouldn't have noticed (because he never does), but Juan would definitely know by now (because he always does).

"As obvious as Ludwig and Feliciano." Grieta gave an example.

"...Gosh, that _is_ obvious..." I realized. I gave up on trying to hide it from Grieta. I mean, it'd be hard to keep hiding that fact that I like Matthew from my roommate. I told her everything about today from the time Matthew asked me if I liked anyone up to the part when he stopped me from going but said nothing about my confession. I expected Grieta to start pouring advice and suggestions on me about what I should do, but all she did was grin even wider.

"You're smart. You'll figure something out~" she said in a singsong voice as she tucked herself in the bottom bunk bed. I stood for a few seconds staring at her, as if she had offended me somehow in calling me smart. But after a while, my exhaustion got to me and I climbed up to my bed and tried to sleep.

...Dammit. I can't fall asleep like this...

* * *

**Gosh:**

It's been so long since I wrote that I can't even remember if I ever did a chapter in first person. Is it okay? I'm kind of thinking of continuing writing in this style...maybe. The first part was so awkward that I was getting embarrassed just writing it...

And sorry...I just had to sneak in something perverted in there somehow. I was just typing up what Grieta said and then I imagined what me and my friends would've thought if someone really said it like that XD.

Yeah, I'm a horrible person for saying there'd be more chapters soon last time... I ended up being really busy this summer since I'm taking a Physics course. Gah.

Anyways, thanks rultas, Monk Gyatso, darkbutterfly45 and anyone else for reading and reviewing despite my very slow updating! If you guys still stick with me for the future chapters, thanks in advance! You're awesome!


	11. Chapter 8: What

Chapter 8: What

"Hmm, I appreciate you two not being late today, but if you're going to sleep in class anyway..." Mama Hassan announced, eyeing Mattie and Tina. I noticed Tina falling asleep straight after she sat in front of me, but I had to turn around to see if Mama Hassan was right about my brother.

"W-what?" Mattie snapped out from nodding off. He had a little bit of drool inching its way out of the corner of his mouth and his glasses were crooked. Tina stayed sound asleep though, textbook open as if she was just reading. Mattie's kinda lucky. If Tina was awake to see him nod off in class, she might lecture him like she always lectures me.

"Hey, Mattie! Were you keeping Tina up all night?" I joked. It's hilarious making Matt flustered since he never does anything back. Besides, Tina's too knocked out to hit me for this right now.

"W-what the! O-of course not! We weren't even together last night!" Mattie defended. Hah...usually this is a bit funnier... Doesn't he seems a little _too_ defensive?

Grieta giggled, making both us brothers snap towards the direction of her voice.

"G-grieta, don't laugh! You're gonna make it sound like I'm lying!" Matt reasoned. Grieta's holding back her laughter now. She usually doesn't do that. Is Mattie lying?

But then she smiled wider... By now the whole class was watching the hilarity ensue. Even Mama Hassan was leaning by the side of her desk looking at Matt nervously denying everything Grieta was implying with her smile. Then, the whole class began laughing. Well, except for Mattie, Tina, and me. Mattie because he was too groggy to realize everyone was just kidding, Tina because she was dead asleep, and me because...well, I dunno. Why isn't this funny?

For the rest of the school day, both Tina and Matt were in and out of sleep. Matt only stayed awake in History class just so he could glare at Mr. Adnan for the whole period. I just thought of it now, but why _are_ Mattie and Tina so sleepy today? Matt's not a good liar, so I'm pretty sure they weren't together last night since he keeps denying that... I mean, Tina wouldn't spend the night with a guy anyways, even if it _is_ Matt. Yeah! Especially Matt! They've only known each other for a couple of months now...

"What do you keep thinking about, Al?" Matt asked, surprising me. Oh, right, we're walking down the stairs to the cafeteria.

"It's nothing, Mattie. Just looking forward to burgers for lunch today!" I said, flashing my usual smile and thumbs up. But he just tiredly looked back at me as if I was crazy. Oh shi—! Burger's aren't even for lunch today! "Uh..haha, yeah! Where's Tina by the way? Don't we all have the same class next?"

"She left her homework at the cafeteria this morning, so she just went to get it real quickly so she can hand it in before lunch." Matt explained. Why didn't Tina tell me _too_, though? She usually tells me when she's gonna go somewhere so that I can come along or something. Sometimes she even offers to bring something back for me. ...Tina hasn't done that in a couple of weeks now, has she?

While we walked down the stairs, a really loud, grumpy-sounding Italian could be heard yelling at someone as he ran up the stairs. Looking over the hand rails, it seemed that Lovino Vargas was running away from our class rep, Hyung Soo, Yong Soo's older brother. Lovi's lucky that Natalia's too busy stalking Braginski to help Hyung Soo out with their class rep duties, which, in this case is catching a troublemaker. Hm, I wonder what Lovi did?

"Oh, hey, Tina's coming up the stairs now too!" I pointed out. She was only a flight down, but she wasn't at her usual business-like speed. In fact, she seemed a little drowsy and almost as if she's about to fal—

"TINA!" Matt yelled, cutting off my thoughts. I looked back down and saw that Lovi ran past Tina, startling her, putting her off balance right when she was gonna take a step. It seemed to happen in slow mo: Tina losing her footing, Lovi slowing down to a stop, realizing too late what had happened, Hyung Soo too far behind to do anything, and Tina's papers flying into the air. No, I can't let her fall!

I instinctually slipped off my bookbag, and started running down the stairs at full speed. Everything started moving in normal time again, making me realize how fast Tina was falling. Shit! At this rate, I won't make it in ti—

"Tina!" Matt interrupted my thoughts again, but this time he was in front of me, running past me. When did he get there! At the next moment, Matt was right by Tina, who was equally as shocked as me. This time, everything seemed to move even faster: he grabbed her arm, pulling her towards him into a protective embrace, and then Matt spun to place himself below right as they landed at the bottom of those stairs. Oddly, there was no loud, exaggerated crash like everyone expected, but there were two worrying thunks as Matt and Tina made contact with the floor. One was their bodies landing roughly on the tile (or whatever stairwells are made out of), and the other was Matt's head hitting the floor.

I...what just happened...? I ended up stopping in my tracks the moment Matt reached Tina. I watched the unbelievable scene unfold ("Unbelievable" because Matt thinks things through and considers everything before acting. _I'm_ the one who runs in without a plan and jumps into problems to save others). But after they landed and everyone who was close enough to know what had just happened ran past me in concern, I remembered who just fell. I pushed through the forming crowd to make sure that nothing bad happened to Mattie, my little brother, and Tina, my...wait, what is she to me?

... ... ... ... ...

"Stop chasing me, you bastard!" I heard Lovino scream from some flights below. I couldn't care to turn around or look over the rail to see what was happening since I had to get my homework to Mrs. Karpusi before going back to the cafeteria. I shouldn't keep her waiting since she even gave me time to go get my assignment instead of just taking points off for handing it in late. I was moving as fast as I could up the stairs, but I felt so much more tired than usual. It was almost like trudging through snow. With all my thinking, I didn't realize that Lovino's voice, was gradually getting louder, his hurried footsteps and someone else's starting to sound closer until suddenly he ran past me at such a speed that my papers flew out of my hands.

"TINA!" I heard Matthew shout from above. Wait, how can I see him if I'm looking straight forward? Am I falling?...! I close my eyes; This can't be happening, I was so sure that didn't miss that step! I-I can still grab the hand rail! But as I reach out, my hand touches only the air and immediately falls back to my side. My body feels so heavy, I can't even open eyes.

"Tina!" I hear Matthew's voice again, but this time closer. My eyes fly open and he's right in front of me now. How did he get here so fast? I didn't even have time to think when he grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me towards himself. Wait, no! He'll fall along with me! But I had no choice as Matthew held me in his arms, firmly but gently, and he spun us so he was below me. And all I could do was close my eyes. I know it's terrible, but I just couldn't watch him fall.

Soon, too soon, I felt the impact of the floor through Matthew. We slid a little bit until the momentum completely stopped. I opened my eyes once more, and there was Matthew's face, scrunched up in pain. He opened his eyes for a slight moment, only enough to see me looking back at him in worry, before he smiled silently to himself and closed them again.

"M-Matthew!" I say a little too loud. His hold on me was looser but still secure, so I had to wriggle my way out before I could check his head. Hyung Soo came running up immediately, asking if anyone was hurt.

"I'm fine, but Matthew hit his head really hard." I answered.

"Is there any bleeding?" he continued, methodically. I check Matthew carefully, slipping my hand under his head to check for any blood seeping from his hair.

"No, there's no blood." I say, but I feel moisture somewhere else. I reach up to my eyes, and feel...tears? Oh gosh, I'm crying...

Hyung Soo doesn't know how to deal with crying girls, so he just came over and tried to pull Matthew up. Finding that Matthew was taller and heavier then he was, Hyung Soo looked around the crowd, finding Alfred, who was standing not ten feet away, a bit dumbfounded.

"Jones, help me carry...uh..." Hyung Soo looked back at the unconscious Canadian.

"Williams." I answered. "He's Matthew Williams."

"He's my little brother." Alfred explained after he snapped out of his trance and came over to help.

"He is? I didn't know you had a younger sibling." Hyung Soo stated. He was so sure he memorized the student directory by now. "Is he a freshman?"

"Uh, no..." Alfred said while he and Hyung Soo hoisted Matthew up from the floor. "He's a sophomore too."

"W-what? Really?" Hyung Soo said, with a slightly confused look on his face. "I had no idea who this guy was until now..."

I got up, wiping some of my tears with the back of my hand. I can't just stand here crying after what Matthew did for me. Looking around, I found his bookbag on one of the steps. Lovino saw it too and handed it to me without making any eye contact. It's not like we don't get along. We just don't know each other all that well.

... ... ... ... ...

Ugh...my head...hurts like hell...! What just happened...? ...Oh yeah, Tina was falling! And we...fell. Is she okay? Gah...my heeeeaaaaad! Where am I anyways?

I opened my eyes, slowly so I could gradually get used to the bright light. Someone's right in front of me, sitting at the side of my bed. Is that Tina? Damn, everything's so blurry... I tried squinting, until the person sitting by me realized and placed my glasses gently on my face. It _was_ Tina, but her cheeks were tear-streaked and she was scowling at me.

"A-are you okay Tina?" I ask, sitting up on my bed so fast that my head begins to throb. "Aaugh!"

"Damn it!" Tina exclaimed quietly to herself. "I can't stay mad at you if you're like that!" she complained, carefully holding my face in her hand as she leaned me back onto my pillow.

"...Why would you be mad at me...?" I asked, confused. I wonder if she was always this contradictory.

"You shouldn't have done that!" she began ranting. "That that...that making yourself fall! You could've gotten yourself killed!"

"I hardly think I'd get ki—" I tried to reason.

"Seriously injured, then!" she corrected, exasperated. She obviously couldn't accept the fact that saving her wasn't a foolish act at all.

"But you would do the same for me too, wouldn't you?" I continued reasoning.

"Of course I would," Tina answered, turning round again to face me. "But you'd be just as angry afterwards!"

"But I love you."

"That doesn't mean you can just go and—WHAT?" she almost screamed, eyes widening as if she couldn't process what I just said.

"I, um...yeah?" I repeated Tina's words the day before.

"S-so you _did_ hear me!" she realized, seeming half-relieved and half-horrified.

"Oh, good. I _wasn't_ wrong then." I smiled, sighing.

"You...if you weren't already injured because of me, I would hit you!" she suddenly snapped, but softened immediately. She was trying to calm herself down now. "I couldn't get any sleep all night because I thought you hadn't heard me and I was worried about...I don't even know." she explained, her voice growing softer as she talked.

"Hah, then I guess Alfred was right about me keeping you up all night." I unwittingly said to myself, remembering this morning's joke.

"W-what?" Tina asked, obviously hearing me.

"No, never mind. It was something from class. So..." I quickly tried to change the subject. I had to breathe in deeply first though, to try and gather some courage.

"So...?" she knew I had something important to say.

"Will you be my girlfriend, then?" I asked a little too hurried. "And don't say yes just because I saved you today." I added as an afterthought. Tina's too dutiful, so I don't want her to feel obligated to say yes. But, well...she _did_ say she liked me yesterday...

"Dummy," she said immediately, a slight laugh creeping into her answer. "I would've said yes even before!"

... ... ... ... ...

...And then Tina reached out and touched his cheek with her hand. What the— What the hell is _this_? I just stepped out to get Mattie his bear and...this? I mean, I know that eavesdropping is bad but I just can't believe that Tina and Matt would... It's just that all these years, Tina hasn't... I always thought that...

"Who?" the polar bear in my arms interrupted. He looked up at me curiously, as if he didn't already know me.

"Not _'who'_, Kumajiro, _'what.'_" I tell him. 'What' makes more sense in this incredible situation. Kumajiro seemed to think about it a little bit, before speaking again.

"...'What'?"

* * *

**Okays:**

I'm putting up another chapter now so I don't feel bad about not posting for another few weeks...maybe.

Yay, finally! It's Alfred's POV! I can't tell if this sounds like Alfred at all though...

Don't you just hate it when you don't get any sleep at all and then you have school! D: Remember kids, drowsy stair-climbing is dangerous!

This is a very important development! So much that I procrastinated on writing this chapter for like a week! I only procrastinate on important things!

And yes, Hyung Soo is North Korea. He's also a sophomore (since he's older than Yong Soo, who's a freshman), and I made him class representative since I'd imagine he'd be very good with rules and regulations, and trying to keep everyone else on point.


	12. Ch 9: The Roommate & The Little Brother

Chapter 9: The Roommate and The Little Brother

[_Just so you guys know, there will be some Tagalog and some French in this chapter, so there will be translations at the bottom._ ^_^]

"And then what happened?" I asked enthusiastically. I had already been told about the heroic rescue at the stairwell, but Tina wouldn't tell me anything else besides him asking her to be his girlfriend. Now it was the day after Tina and Matthew decided to become a couple. They really took their time, didn't they...

"Grieta, I-I'll tell you about it later. I really think I should go eat breakfast now..." Tina reasoned. She was getting dressed for the day, but I was already prepared and bored waiting.

"You could just tell me right now~" I suggested.

"Grieta, please. I'm in a hurry—" she began, but I interrupted her with my realization.

"Oooh~! You're gonna eat breakfast with him, aren't you?" I concluded. Tina was walking the fine line between rushing at full speed and taking her time to be sure that she was indiscreetly prettied up. When I noticed her eyes widened for a moment and she took a quick glance at the door, it was obvious: "He's waiting outside our room, isn't he?"

"G-grieta! Don't!" Tina tried to stop me, but I had already bounced up from my bottom bunk bed and was headed for the door, while she was struggling to get something out of the closet to wear. I swung open the door and Matthew, thinking it was Tina who opened the door, stepped into the room. For a second, the two of them stared at each other until Tina turned pink, and made a squeaky noise as she tried to cover herself up with her uniform, which she failed to separate from the hanger. Matthew caught himself and, finding that he couldn't close the door since I was still holding it open, simply turned around to face the opposite direction.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't see anything!" he said, flustered. I looked back at Tina, who had now managed to get her blouse off the hanger and was swiftly getting dressed. She glared at me when I started chatting with Matthew.

"So, Matthew~ Should you really be so up and about after yesterday's incident?" I asked the still pink Canadian.

"Well, I went to the nurse's office earlier and Mama Hassan said I was fine." Matthew said, still looking straight forward. He's so pure. "I only got a little bump at the back of my head.."

"So, have you two kissed yet~?" I inquired nonchalantly. Suddenly, Matthew's cheeks turned back from pink to red and Tina's head shot up to look back at me again.

"Grieta!" she almost yelled, while putting on her knee socks. "Don't ask him weird things!"

"Aw, Tina~ I'm only asking him coz _you_ won't tell me..." I replied. "Well, judging from how embarrassed your little boyfriend got, I'm guessing that's a yes~!"

"Th-this isn't the time to be talking about that!" Tina said, finally putting her shoes on and grabbing her bookbag from the floor. She walked towards us and touched Matthew lightly on his shoulder. He turned around slowly, but smiled once they were facing each other again.

"Sorry for making you wait." Tina said, looking up at the taller boy in front of her.

"No, it's fine." he said, looking back into her eyes. For a short moment, the two simple looked at each other, smiling. They are sooooo adorable! When they remembered I was right there, grinning widely at the two little lovebirds, they got embarrassed again.

"Uh, we should head to breakfast now." Matthew suggested. Tina slung her bookbag on and then began walking out of the room with Matthew. Oh, I can_not_ miss watching these two. They are too fun to tease!

"I guess I'll come along too, then~" I said, following behind the couple as they walked down the hallway.

"O-okay..." Matthew said politely, although he looked a little disappointed.

"Aw, don't make that face." I told him. "You two have been hanging out alone for over a month now! I just wanna see what you guys _really_ do when it's just you two~" I explained. Although, it won't just be the two of them if I go... Oh, oh! There it is! His hand is getting closer to hers, and yup, now they've made contact and...yays! They're holding hands~! Aw, I'm so proud of Tina; she's usually so shy around boys. Well, except Yao, her little brother, and Al... Oh wait, Matthew is Al's brother, right? Ooo~ This is _so_ much more interesting than I thought!

When we reached the cafeteria, I got my waffles, Matthew got his pancakes, and Tina got a sunny-side egg and some rice. Juan found us just as we were walking towards a table. Even though Matthew and Tina weren't holding hands anymore (they were holding their food trays now), Juan squinted at Matthew, looking at him as if he was doing something wrong. He quickly got some rice and breakfast sausages and followed us to our table. Just as we were sitting down, Juan squeezed in between his sister and Matthew. He said "I'm sorry" to Matthew, but quickly looked back to his sister and began interrogating her in their native language.

"Ate, totoo ba na muntik ka na mahulog sa hagdanan kahapon?" Juan asked his sister, earnestly at first.

"Oo. Pero niligtas ako ni Matthew, kaya okey naman ako." Tina answered, calmly, although she seemed to know what was coming.

"Tapos gnayon, boyfriend mo na siya?" his voice was beginning to hint with some disapproval.

"Tama. May problema ba?" she answered and asked her own question.

"Gaano katagal mo siyang kilala, Ate?" Juan continued to ask. Do these two always talk to each other in questions?

"At anong kinalaman non sa kahit ano?" she replied.

"Ilang taon mo na bang minamahal si Kuya Alfred?" his voice rose slightly, as if he couldn't understand something.

"Sinasabi ko no sa iyo, Juan. Hindi ako nakikita ni Alfred nang ganoon!" Tina reasoned tiredly. She continued talking quietly, but her grip on her spoon tightened though...

"Alam na ba nito ni Kuya Alfred?" Juan continued after he calmed down a bit.

"Hindi ko alam. Wala kaming pagkakataon kahapon sabihin kay Alfred..."

Even though the two siblings were eating and talking with quiet voices, it was obvious they were sort of arguing. Matthew was listening intently while eating his pancakes uncomfortably. He heard his name, the word "boyfriend," followed by several mentions of Alfred. This was making him nervous since he knew Juan was very important to Tina and Juan didn't seem too keen on Matthew. Juan seemed to know all about Tina's feelings for Alfred too.

At first it was kinda interesting that Juan seemed to disapprove of Matthew, but now I was growing bored since I couldn't understand a word they were saying.

"Pendant qu'ils parlent, continuons notre conversation jusqu'à?" I said aloud, catching Matthew's attention.

"Qu-quoi?" he asked, surprised. He musn't have noticed I spoke French too.

"Ce qui a fait Tina et vous faites après que vous lui avez demandé d'être votre petite amie?" I asked him. By now, the two Filipinos had stopped talking. Juan heard his sister's name and became aware I was asking Matthew about her. That kid's pretty protective of his older sister in his own way... Tina, on the other hand just seemed relieved that Juan was distracted for the moment.

"R-rien. Nous n'avons fait rien." Matthew denied, flustered.

"Je sais déjà que vous deux vous êtes embrassés. Dites-moi-en juste." I urged. I don't know why neither Tina nor Matthew wanted to tell me anything. They should know that anything I ask is just out of curiosity~

"Pourquoi me demandez-vous de cela?" he asked back, a bit confused.

"Parce que Tina ne me dira pas." I explained, sighing.

"Alors je ne crois pas que je doive vous dire n'importe quoi si Tina ne veut pas que vous sachiez." he answered without thinking. He didn't seem nervous anymore though, almost as if his resolve had risen.

"Elle veut vraiment que je sache. Elle a dit qu'elle me dira plus tard." I tried to reason, but then he ended the conversation.

"Alors elle vous dira plus tard." he smiled innocently. I sighed and turned to Tina.

"He's just as stubborn as you, Tina." I told her. She realized what I was trying to ask Matthew and smiled at him for not telling even if she wouldn't have known if he did. But before anyone else could say anything, the bell rang, signaling that we should get on our way to first period. All of us scrambled to get our things and leave, but before everyone parted ways, Juan turned to his older sister again.

"Ate, kailan mo sasabihin kay Kuya Alfred ito?" Juan asked, as if it was all he wanted. But before Tina could make up an answer, Matthew held her hand and answered for her as if he understood Juan's intentions completely.

"We'll tell Alfred, and everyone else, during lunch." Matthew said unwaveringly. Juan looked at him for a bit, but then he nodded and left the cafeteria. After her brother was gone, Tina squeezed Matthew hand, exhaled, and then looked up at him.

"We should get going to class then." she said, relieved. Throughout the schoolday, very few people really noticed the new couple walking through the hallways. They had been walking side by side like that for over a month, but now their hands were linked.

Every once in a while one of Tina's friends would stop her in the hallway and ask her if she was okay after yesterday's accident. She would just say she was fine and then introduce them to Matthew. It was kinda funny how they'd get surprised at how they never noticed someone else standing beside Tina _and_ holding her hand. There were a variety of reactions depending on who it was.

When Tina introduced him to Erin Kirkland, she mistook him for Alfred and made the situation a little awkward when she congratulated her on "finally hooking up with him." When Tina straightened her out, Erin laughed it off and gave Matthew a violent pat on the back, congratulating _him_ instead. When Hue Nguyen caught sight of Tina walking hand in hand with a guy, Ms. Vice President stopped in her tracks and approached the two. At first she mistook him for Alfred and was about to get really angry until Tina explained everything to her. At some point Victoria and Lakshmi came by and, noticing that Tina and Matthew were holding hands, began giggling until Matthew turned completely pink. It's so cute how shy he is.

… … … … …

It's almost lunchtime. I wonder if Ate will really tell Kuya Alfred and everyone else. She's usually keeps her feelings inside...well, every now and then she'd rant to me about all her complaints. But otherwise, she just stays nice and courteous. It's just that she's been holding herself back with all the stuff with Antonio and Kuya Alfred that I just can't believe she'd find someone else to like so much. It kinda figures that he'd look almost exactly like Kuya Alfred though, except he isn't as awesome.

I don't really have anything personal against that Matthew guy. It's just that it really bothers me how Ate could just push aside her feelings for Kuya Alfred like that. I know she keeps telling me that he doesn't see her in that way, but I know she's wrong. I've been watching them for years and, even if Kuya Alfred doesn't realize it, he definitely feels _something_ for Ate. I mean, he definitely didn't have to visit all those times and come to bother Ate even when he didn't need anything. And after learning from Kuya Alfred for all these years, I came to a conclusion: if it was just about me, Kuya Alfred would probably have only encouraged me to kick out Antonio from our house on my own. But because of Ate, Kuya Alfred confronted Antonio head on and even fought with him in front of her. Kuya Alfred even got really jealous when he saw Ate talking to Dylan. Both of them made excuses, though: Ate said that Alfred was just a "egotistical jerk," and Kuya Alfred made up the excuse that he didn't think we were ready to make friends with other older kids yet. He was fine when _I_ talked to Dylan later that day though...

I didn't get to the cafeteria as early as I wanted, so by the time I got there Feli and Ludwig were already sitting at our table. Ludwig was diligently waiting for everyone else before he began eating, but Feli seemed to have annoyed Ludwig into letting him eat some pasta. Where did he even get that anyway? I sat next to Feli and waited, but pretty soon, everyone else arrived. Ate and Matthew weren't holding hands anymore since they were carrying their food trays, but they sat next to each other since Kuya Alfred sat on my other side. At first everyone began to eat like it was a usual lunch, so I shot Matthew a glare to remind him of what he said. He noticed and nodded. Seemingly without doing anything, Ate seemed to noticed me glaring. And that's when I noticed...ew, they're holding hands under the table! After that though, Matthew coughed slightly, getting everyone else's attention.

"Um, I don't know if everyone already heard about yesterday..." Matthew started, but was quickly interrupted.

"What happened yesterday?" Feli asked, genuinely oblivious.

"Oh, uh...Tina almost fell down the stairs, but I...uh..." Matthew grew nervous. He seems less confident about calling himself some kind of hero than being Ate's boyfriend.

"He saved me." Ate said simply.

"Wah~! You really _are_ Al's brother!" Feli concluded. There was a little pause in the conversation right then since nobody knew who was going to talk next. But then Matthew continued.

"W-well, afterwards, I asked Tina to be my girlfriend." he said with more conviction than before. "And she said yes." There was another silence, but then Daniel leaned back on his seat, smiled, and then gave Matthew an approving nod. It relieved Matthew that someone, even if it _was_ the mysterious Netherlander, approved of him. One after another, the rest of the table gave their silent nods, until I turned to Kuya Alfred.

"So, Kuya Alfred, what do you think?" I asked, hoping for a reaction.

"Oh! Haha... I already knew." Kuya Alfred said, laughing unnecessarily. "I was outside the nurse's office when Mattie asked her. I didn't wanna interrupt them, so I sat out in the hallway with Matt's polar bear." he explained. Okay...even _I_ think that's a little bit pathetic... But since Grieta already heard all about this, she was impatient to ask about what happened next.

"So, what did you guys do afterward~?" she asked, implying that she already knew.

"Grieta! This isn't the time!" Ate protested.

"Aw, but you said you'd tell me!" Grieta whined. She was definitely goading Ate, but this time Ate didn't think before she spoke.

"You already know we kissed!" she almost yelled, getting up from her chair and pulling both her hands on the table. I think the rest of the cafeteria must have heard her though... When she realized what she had just said, she turned beet red and immediately sat back down. But Matthew and Kuya Alfred both turned red too. Wait, if Kuya Alfred is blushing too, that means he really does like Ate back! Gah, why isn't she looking at him right now! Ate _always_ looks at Kuya Alfred when she thinks nobody else notices! But this time she wasn't since Grieta continued teasing the couple.

"So I was right! You two _have_ made out~" Grieta stated.

"I-it wasn't like that..." Ate replied despite still looking down at her plate of food. "It was chaste..." she said in a quiet voice.

"Is that with or without tongue?" Grieta continued, as if it was a perfectly normal question to ask during lunch. There was a short silence and it almost seemed as if the rest of the cafeteria got quieter.

"...without." Ate answered quietly. I exhaled. I don't know why I was holding my breathe, but I ended up doing it anyway. I know she's my _older_ sister, but she's still my _sister_. I have to be sure to protect her...or something... Another long silence followed and nobody at our table said anything again until the usual murmur of conversation seemed to resonate in the cafeteria again.

"Uh...hahaha..." Kuya Alfred broke our silence with a laugh more awkward than usual. "Hey, if you two get married, Tina would become my sister!" Kuya joked. Both Ate and Matthew looked at him weird, and even Ludwig raised an eyebrow to the comment. When only more silence resulted, I decided to add on to the joke.

"Oh, um, and then Kuya Alfred would _really_ be my brother!" I said, trying to match Kuya Alfred's seeming enthusiasm. I got the same three confused looks from Ate, Matthew, and Ludwig, and an equally semi-horrified look from Kuya Alfred, who thought I wasn't joking. I sighed... This is going nowhere. But then, out of nowhere, Feli spoke again.

"Hmm, I was rooting for Antonio~" he said innocently.

"F-feliciano—!" Ate began to lecture, but then that Spanish bastard popped out of nowhere from behind Ate.

"Rooting for me in what?" Antonio asked, startling Ate and Matthew, who hadn't seen him walking toward our table.

"WAH..u-uh, soccer! I mean futbol!" Ate said suddenly, after turning around to face him. "He was rooting for you during the big match a couple weeks ago. Congrats on winning! You were great!" she continued, adding in some genuine feeling. He beamed at the compliment and then remembered what he really came for.

"Oh yeah! I heard you and Matthew here finally got together!" he said, putting each arm over both Ate's and Matthew's shoulders. "Congrats on that! You see, since I'm sort of like an older brother to Tina," and Ate almost did a facepalm. "I had to come see her first boyfriend for myself. Well, you seem like an okay guy, so make sure to treat her well!" Antonio concluded, whacking Matthew on the back. Then, he proposed a group hug, which Grieta and Feli happily joined, but then he had to leave when Lovino threw a shoe at Antonio's head from two tables away.

"Dammit! Stop bothering other people, bastard!"

* * *

**Like woah:**

I'm pretty sure Belgium is supposed to be this bubbly kinda character, but somehow she ended being kinda scheming...well, why not~ Oh, but even though Grieta thinks Matt and Tina are cute, I don't think Juan does... He just wants the best (in his opinion) for his Ate though, so don't start hating the little brother. Besides, I thought having Juan's POV would give a lot of analysis on Alfred's feelings, since Alfred doesn't know that he has them... Oh yeah, I don't remember if I ever said before, but Juan and Feliciano are roommates. And Juan's a little bit like Lovino, except he might actually genuinely hate Antonio...

Ate is Tagalog for "older sister" and Kuya for "older brother," but both terms can be used for close family friends that are around the same age range.

When Juan and Tina were "arguing" I could only imagine them only asking questions since neither of them would want to give a wrong answer or something like that. I don't know, that's just how it came out in my head.

Juan: "Ate, is it true you almost fell down the stairs yesterday?"

Tina: "Yes, but Matthew saved me so I'm fine now."

Juan: "And now he's your boyfriend?"

Tina: "You're right. Is there a problem?"

Juan: "How long have you known him, Ate?"

Tina: "And what does that have to do with anything?"

Juan: "How many years have you been in love with Kuya Alfred?"

Tina: "I've been telling you, Juan. Alfred doesn't see me like that!"

Juan: "Does Kuya Alfred know about this?"

Tina: "I don't know. We didn't have the chance to tell Alfred yesterday..."

Juan: "Ate, when are you going to tell Kuya Alfred this?"

...

And excuse me if the French is incorrect; I used an internet translator for that. Here are the translations for everything:

Grieta: "While they're talking, let's continue our conversation from before?"

Matthew: "Wh-what?"

Grieta: "What did Tina and you do after you asked her to be your girlfriend?"

Matthew: "N-nothing. We didn't do anything."

Grieta: "I already know you two kissed. Just tell me about it."

Matthew: "Why are you asking me about this?"

Grieta: "Because Tina won't tell me."

Matthew: "Then I don't think I should be telling you anything if Tina doesn't want you to know."

Grieta: "She does want me to know. She said she'll tell me later."

Matthew: "Then she'll tell you later."

...

Erin Kirkland is my Ireland OC. She's also a sophomore. Hue Nguyen is Vietnam and she's a senior and the Student Council Vice President. Lakshmi Patel is my India OC, and in case anyone forgot, Victoria Leone Prideux is Seychelles. They're both freshmen and they recognized Matthew since they were all former-British colonies. Haha, maybe I should write a extra chapter someday about how Tina made all these random friends.

And in case nobody remembers either, Dylan Kirkland is Australia and he's a sophomore. Daniel te Kolstee is Netherlands and he's a senior and Grieta's older brother, obviously.

I wanna try to sneak in a couple extra chapters before I go to Niagara Falls [unfortunately, it's not the Canada side, but the NY side should be fun anyways...] on Monday. I hope I don't get too distracted this weekend...


	13. Chapter 10: Silly

Chapter 10: Silly

"Hmm…Where does Tina usually sit?" Antonio asked aloud to our table halfway through the lunch period. He had heard that Tina apparently just got a boyfriend and was curious. I hope he doesn't start to get annoying about it. I mean, he knows a hell of a lot of people, but he gets stubbornly protective over some of them…like he does with me sometimes…

"Oh~ Interested in your 'little sister' again after all this time?" Francis said, implying several things that Antonio was never going to understand. Then again, Antonio never understood a lot of things, even when they were painstakingly obvious.

"Hey, didn't Jones tell you to stay away from her or something?" Gilbert added, sticking his fork into a baked potato and stuffing a chunk into his mouth.

"But that was years ago! Besides, Alfred and I are cool now, so I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind." Antonio replied. I don't ever remember him and Alfred Jones being 'cool.' Maybe 'less hostile' and 'civil' would make more sense since the two just ignore each other now after everything that happened. Without standing up, Antonio began looking around the cafeteria, trying to see if he could find Tina at any of the nearby tables.

"Ah, did anyone hear what happened yesterday?" Francis tried to continue the conversation despite Antonio trying to crane his head over everyone else. It was difficult sometimes to keep up a coherent conversation with only the four of us at the table, so vague topics were good to start with even though these three fools always end up talking about 'old times' anyway.

"Oh, you mean when Tina fell down the stairs? I was there when it happened!" Gilbert said, as if his presence was of any merit to this useless conversation. "Jones just went in and saved the day just like he always does—"

"Non, Gil," Francis interrupted. "That was Mathieu who saved her." He corrected.

"Who?" Antonio, Gilbert, and I said in unison. Even though I was there (and kinda caused it all…but it's not like that even matters; I didn't even do anything wrong), I had no idea who that guy who jumped in was.

"Matthew Williams," Francis said again, trying to lighten his accent and adding a last name that was still unfamiliar to the rest of us. "Remember? He was the boy I used to take care of when he was younger."

"Uh….wasn't that Jones…?" Gilbert slowed his eating, perplexed.

"Non," Francis sighed. "_Arthur_ took care of Alfred. I looked after _Mathieu_." He looked like he was about to start rambling about the woes of being an older brother, but he was interrupted by the sound of someone slamming their hand on a table and shouting. Well, it wasn't really all that loud, but it was audible from where we sat across the cafeteria.

"You already know we kissed!" Tina said, probably louder than she intended, to Grieta. The whole room seemed to pause to eavesdrop for a bit, but Tina immediately sat back down and began talking quieter afterwards.

"I'm so proud of my little Mathieu." Francis commented, breaking the silence at our table.

"Huh? What does he have to do with anything?" I said without thinking. I usually don't bother to talk to either Francis or Gilbert during lunch-time, since a slice of pizza is obviously more interesting than anything they can come up with to say.

"Because he's the one who's Tina's boyfriend now." He answered, nonchalantly.

"What?" Antonio snapped, looking away from Tina's table, where he had been staring since her outburst.

"Are you supposed to be his parent or something?" Gilbert said, ignoring Antonio and poking fun at the Frenchman's sentiments.

"Wait. So it isn't Alfred?" Antonio asked incredulously.

"Well, you say that but aren't you like that with your younger brother too?" Francis retorted, also ignoring Antonio's shocked expression. These two are definitely 'bad friends' to Antonio…

"Except Gilbert is more irresponsible. Not that Francis is any sort of role model for anyone." Antonio said with a straight face. With this, he got both their attention, although now they had nothing to say back. "Well, now that I know where they are, I'm gonna go talk to them for a bit." He said, standing up from his seat.

"H-hey, bastard! Don't go bothering people while they're eating!" I tried to tell him. Even though I don't really know Tina that well, it was obvious from the few times I've met her that she used to like Antonio. I'm pretty sure the last thing she needs is for him to pop up and meet her first boyfriend.

"Oh, I'll be back in a bit, Lovi." Antonio said, patting my head, which was annoying. I watched him walk across the cafeteria, and practically burst into whatever conversation was being had at Tina's table. She and whoever was sitting next to her were visibly surprised, even from where I was sitting, and she looked like she was hurriedly explaining something to Antonio. Really…Antonio is so dense…and why is he hugging everyone now! Instinctively, I grabbed my left shoe and threw it, with surprising accuracy, straight at his head.

"Dammit! Stop bothering other people, bastard!" I yelled from across the room. I waited until I saw him waving goodbye to them before I sat down. But when Antonio returned, I realized I was still missing my shoe. "Augh, you didn't bring back my shoe!" I practically yell at him.

"Oh c'mon, Lovi…you threw it at my head…I don't know where it went…" Antonio tried to explain, but I had already gotten up to retrieve it.

"Wait! We'll come with you." Francis said, getting up from his own seat.

"What? Why?" I was confused. I could tell the pervert bastard and the loud bastard had no intentions of helping me find my shoe.

"I'll come with you guys—" Antonio began getting off from his chair again, but Francis stopped him.

"Non, you'll stay here." He said, motioning for Antonio to sit back down. "You just came back~" Once Antonio had settled himself, a confused look on his face, and the three of us were almost at Tina's table, Gilbert explained himself.

"Since Tina's boyfriend isn't Jones, I wanna meet this…uh…"

"Matthew Williams." Francis reminded him.

"Yeah—this Williams guy." Gilbert finished, just as we reached our destination.

"Fratellone! What are you doing here?" Feliciano practically jumped out of his seat, clinging onto me. I'm surprised he didn't spill any of his pasta (where did he even get that from anyways?).

"Augh! Feli! Get off me!" I yell. He pouted and let go, sitting back down and resuming his lunch. Now everyone at their table was looking at us, understandably confused. "I'm just here to get my shoes back, dammit!"

"And what about you, brüder?" the potato bastard asked. Gilbert placed his arm around Ludwig's shoulder and answered very straightforward.

"Oh, I just wanted to meet this...uh…" he began, but forgot the name again.

"Matthew Williams." Francis reminded once more, standing right behind the blond guy sitting next to Tina and pointing to him.

"Matthew Williams guy!" Gilbert said louder, as if he was trying to cover up the fact that he forgot the name so soon. "Where is he?" Ludwig made a face as if to say 'Francis just pointed to him; didn't you see?' before motioning his older brother towards the young man sitting next to Tina. "Huh? Where?"

"Ah, I'm Matthew." The guy said, standing up to introduce himself, like he knew he wouldn't be seen otherwise. I don't think he noticed, but Matthew had now revealed that he had been holding Tina's hand under the table. Grieta grinned widely after seeing this, although Alfred and the kid sitting next to him frowned momentarily.

"Oh!" Gilbert realized after squinting at Matthew for a few seconds. "You're the one who gave me maple syrup before!" He continued, walking over to Matthew and hitting him on the back like they were old chums. "Thanks, man. That was delicious!"

"I'm surprised you two have already met." Francis commented.

"I'm more surprised he didn't know his name nor could see him just now." Ludwig added. "Especially since he ate pancakes for every meal until the maple syrup ran out…"

"Oh yeah! Can I have some more of that?" Gilbert asked, obviously forgetting his original intentions for coming.

"U-uh, sure—" Matthew said, earning him another violent pat on the back. Just then the bell rang, and other people began getting up from their lunch tables. I suddenly remembered my shoes and started looking for it frantically. Shit, I'm gonna be late for class because that stupid tomato bastard didn't bother to bring my shoe back!

"Lovino," I heard someone say, so I momentarily look up towards the voice. "Here's your shoe. It was under our table." It was Tina, holding out my shoe to give to me.

"Uh, thanks!" I said, even though I could've found it myself. But then I remembered what had happened yesterday and decided to apologize. "And, uh…sorry about the thing yesterday, with the stairs…"

"Oh, it's fine, Lovino." She smiled. I noticed then that her boyfriend had been standing next to her the whole time.

"Yeah! Besides it all turned out well for the both of you anyways!" I said, hurriedly putting my shoe on and briskly turning around to leave. Why can't things work out well for the rest of us…? Just then I caught sight of Antonio, waving to me even though he was carrying both our stuff. I headed towards him, snatched my book bag away and began going to class.

"Aw, Loviiiii!" Antonio said, following me and then trying to cling onto me like Feli did.

"What is it, bastard? Isn't your class the other way?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Hmph…but you didn't come back the rest of the lunch period! I was lonely at our table!" he said, finally succeeding in grabbing onto me although my bag was between us. I didn't say anything and just let him follow me to class. Hell if I care if he's late to his own class!

... ... ... ... ...

"That was kinda weird." I said to Tina as we walked towards our British Literature class.

"What was?" she asked earnestly. She must always be used to random visitors during lunch time...

"Y'know, the whole thing with telling our table that we're together now, and then Antonio, Francis, Gilbert, and Lovino visiting our table right afterwards."

"Hmm…I guess that _is_ kinda weird…" Tina agreed, although she seemed to think it was perfectly normal for so many people to inquire about us.

"I mean, it's just that I'm so used to being alone. And, uh, nobody usually notices me… Like how Gilbert couldn't even see me in the beginning." I tried to explain. At this, Tina slowed her walking and squeezed my hand that she was holding.

"I suppose you're just going to have to get used to not being alone anymore, then." She said, looking up at me and smiling. I couldn't help but smile too. Even though this relationship just started, this girl is practically pulling me into a different world!

"Unless its alone with you." I mentioned without thinking. She paused for moment, and then she began giggling. "W-what? I thought it sounded more romantic than funny…"

"Silly! If it were the two of us together, then neither of us would be alone." She answered. And it dawned on me that, because of her, I wouldn't have to be alone anymore. The second bell rang suddenly, snapping us out of our thoughts. Oh, we're going to be late again… For a second we continued to stand there just smiling, but we realized we were close enough to the classroom that, if we ran, we might still make it before the lesson actually started.

"You do know that you can probably run faster if your hands weren't like that?" Mrs. Kirkland commented as we burst into the room, out of breath. We were confused for a bit until we noticed we were still holding hands.

"Uh…o-oh." was all I could manage to say. I could feel my face heating up as I noticed the class had begun staring at the two of us, murmurs of 'See, I told you it was true' and 'Well, it was obviously gonna happen sooner or later' and 'But who is he again?' had started. I took a glance at Tina and saw she too was blushing, but neither of us let go.

"Hmm, well, since you two are only two minutes late instead of you r usual five, I won't give you guys detention this time." Mrs. Kirkland said to get the class back on track. "Besides, I think you too are an adorable couple!" she added, surprising both Tina and I who had been heading to our seats. "Should I change the seating so you two can sit next to each other~?" she teased then, giving a playful grin reminiscent of Grieta's.

"M-mrs. Kirkland, it's hardly the time for that!" Tina suddenly mustered to say, bringing the whole class to laughter. Even though she was student, it was as if she was scolding the British woman. Wow, I didn't think Tina had good relationship even with teachers.

"Haha, okay okay." Mrs. Kirkland began calming the class back down. "I'll just rearrange the class for next time~" This time, even Tina and I laughed along. Ah, everything sure is different when I'm with her.

* * *

**Yays:**

I have finally returned! I'm so so very sorry for anyone reading this who had to wait literally seven months for an update. And thanks so much for anyone who still bothers to read this. I promise I'll try to be more regular with my updates from now on!

Anyways, I have no idea how I ended up doing the first part of this chapter in Lovi's POV…It just kinda happened that way. And word sure does travel fast in World Academy, doesn't it? I mean, it's only the day after (yes, I know it's been seven months since I wrote it, but it's only been a day in the story!) they got together and even the teachers know about it! XD


	14. Chapter 11: Quite Often Actually

Chapter 11: Quite Often Actually

"Okay! Let's get this started!" Grieta said, pulling both Matthew and me out into the hallway. "This is a very important weekend!"

"How so?" Matthew asked, half-expecting me to know why. I could only reflect the same confused look back at him and hope Grieta would explain.

"Because this is your first weekend together!" Grieta answered simply, beaming at us.

"…So why are you with us, then?" I asked, already regretting having told her that I was meeting with Matthew today.

"Because I definitely have to see this for myself." She replied enthusiastically, guiding us towards the faculty dorms. I couldn't understand why she was taking us there, but I began feeling anxious.

"See what for yourself?" I decided to ask, although I was a bit nervous to know what she had planned for us.

"I think I know what she's gonna do," Matthew sighed, squeezing my hand to remind me he would be there too. "She's gonna go tell the teachers about us—"

"Not just that!" Grieta interrupted. "I'm going to interview them to see what they think of you two!" she finished explaining triumphantly. With this, I stopped in my tracks, prompting Matthew to pause beside me. Grieta walked a few more steps before realizing we had been left behind, after which she merely turned around and tapped her foot impatiently.

"What's wrong, Tina?" Matthew asked concerned. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Ah…it's just that…it's not like we announced it or anything…" I began rambling. "I mean, I don't know if Yao will appro—"

"…Hm?" he knew I had more to say, but caught me just staring at his face contemplatively.

"Nevermind!" I suddenly answered, startling Matthew a bit. I started heading towards Grieta again, with more confidence this time. "I can't think of anyone who wouldn't approve of you."

"Ah…haha…now _I'm_ the one getting nervous…" he said, matching his pace with mine.

... ... ... ... ...

The first stop was Mr. Vargas' office, simply because his room was the first one after entering the building. Grieta knocked and went in first, suddenly shutting the door after telling the two of us to wait outside. We couldn't help but listen by the door…

"Oh hey Mr. Vargas! I have something to ask you." She said quite excitedly, her voice easily heard through the door which Tina and I were listening closely to.

"What is it, Grieta?" he seemed welcoming, but clueless. "Aren't you usually out and about on weekends?"

"Yeah, usually." She answered. "But today, I wanna ask you about…" Grieta said as her voice seemed to get louder from outside the door. Suddenly the door swung open and Tina and I, who had been leaning on it, fell inward. "…these two!" Mr. Vargas stood up in slight alarm when we fell in, but then he began laughing, offering no help while I tried to untangle myself from Tina.

"A-ah, sorry!" I apologized, getting up from on top of Tina as fast as I could.

"O-oh, it's fine." She said just as hurriedly as I helped her up. Mr. Vargas approached us and answered Grieta's question.

"I think it was only a matter of time with these two!" he said in his loud, booming voice. "It took you look enough, though!" the Italian man said, whacking me acceptingly on the back so hard that I almost fell over again. Why is everyone so aggressive lately?

"Uh…thanks?" I said, not knowing how to react to the overly friendly principal. Just then, two people could be heard heading towards Mr. Vargas' room.

"Hey, did something happen?" Mr. Beilschmidt asked, looking into the room.

"We heard a loud sound," Mrs. Kirkland added, popping up from behind the German. "It kinda sounded like something fell— Oooh~!" she changed from a concerned tone to a delighted one after seeing me and Tina standing next to Mr. Vargas.

"Oh, this is just perfect~!" Grieta joined in. "Now I can ask the two of you too!"

"Ask us what?" the Vice Principal and Literature teacher said in unison.

"These two!" Grieta said, pushing me and Tina towards the two adults until we faced them directly. Mr. Beilschmidt was even taller than I was and stood, scarily looking down on me, with a stoic expression on his face.

"Haven't your detentions been increasing exponentially since a few weeks ago?" he inquired, almost accusingly, though his facial expression was unchanged.

"Aw, don't be like that, Leopold." Mrs. Kirkland said, putting her hand on his stiff shoulder. "I think they're so adorable!"

"Hmm. Well, as long as they don't get any worse…" he softened, speaking to her instead. Then he turned to me and gave me a nod, before beginning to walk back out the door. Mrs. Kirkland began following him out, but then hopped back towards us.

"Oh, I changed the seating so that the two of you are next to each other now!" she said, excitedly. "But you guys sit at the front so I can keep an eye on you~"

"Thank you!" I said, sounding embarrassingly eager. Both Tina and Mrs. Kirkland were surprised for a second, but then smiled.

"Good catch you got there." She commented, ruffling Tina's hair before she joined Mr. Beilschmidt, who had been waiting for her by the door. The rest of the teachers first gave confused looks when Grieta asked them about us, mostly because they didn't recognize me or was unsure if whether or not I was Alfred. But after straightening that out, they gave us random congratulations. Mama Karpusi and Mama Hassan began probing us with questions about 'how far' we had gotten, but when we were too flustered to answer anything coherently, Grieta began answering for us.

We tried to avoid Mr. Adnan, but we ran into the Turkish man anyways. The second he saw us, he looked away and continued walking, grumbling something about 'kids not having anything better to do with their free time.' Mr. Csontváry, who had been walking with him, gave me a pat on the back similar to Mr. Vargas'. He didn't say anything, but I was glad he knew who I was. That was probably because Alfred and I were in different sports teams and, as the Gym teacher, was aware of all players in each sport.

Ms. Aestii and Mr. Zima were sitting together at a table in the faculty lounge, talking calmly, when Grieta popped in and 'interviewed' them. Ms. Aestii gave a gentle smile and said we were a good match, but Mr. Zima didn't know me or Tina since we never had his class. Nevertheless, he seemed to give an approving nod despite his stern glare reminiscent of an army general. …What is with all of these nice ladies and scary men…?

The final stop was Yao's room. Tina's nervousness returned slightly, so I tried to distract her with conversation. "Hey, how old is Yao anyway?" I asked. It was something I always wondered, but never thought to ask before.

"I'm not actually sure…" she started. "He looks exactly the same way he did a few years ago. I used to think he was a student here too, but since he oversees detentions,"

"And lives in the faculty dorm," I added, as we reached the door to his room.

"Yes. I assumed maybe he was a student-teacher or something." Tina continued. "Nobody seems to add 'Mr.' to his name, either, though."

"Are you guys ready?" Grieta asked, bringing us back to the situation. She actually waited for us this time, noticing our anxiousness. All of us knew by now how important family was to Tina, and since Yao is the only person she ever considered her 'older brother,' he was quite important. Grieta was just about to knock on the door when we heard Yao's voice.

"Come in." he said from inside. It startled us a bit since it sounded like he was expecting us. We opened the door carefully and stepped inside.

... ... ... ... ...

These kids are so noisy aru. If you're going to just stand outside my door, it's better not to discuss my age in such loud voices. I invited them in, since it was clear that Tina had come to introduce her boyfriend to me. Also, I had gotten a few separate texts from Alejandro, Brigid, and Stephen saying that Grieta was 'interviewing' everyone. The three entered in different ways. Grieta te Kolstee seemed to bounce in, immediately spotting me and preparing herself to ask questions. Tina walked in, seemingly with resolve, but I could tell she was nervous because she wouldn't look straight at me. Hands connected, Matthew Williams followed behind her, poised straight and looking me in the eyes directly.

"…so, what do you think?" Grieta finished. I hadn't been listening since I had been observing the couple, but I had an answer prepared beforehand.

"They're quite well-suited aru." I answered, simply. For a moment, all three of them had stayed silent, and then two audible sighs could be heard. Tina and Matthew were obviously relieved, but Grieta looked like she was waiting for more.

"Is that it?" she asked finally. "You're little sister just got her first boyfriend and that's all you say after two seconds of seeing them?"

"Yes."

"…What? Why?" she wondered aloud. "I thought you'd be a little stricter or something seeing as how Tina was so nervous to come here!"

"He's a little different from what I've heard," I explained, smiling. "But I can tell he's a good guy. Of course both of them have to start being more responsible regarding their class attendance aru."

"You've heard about me?" Matthew suddenly said, a bit perplexed. The boy is apparently used to being unnoticed.

"Yes, quite often actually." I answered. "It's mostly from the teachers who were surprised to find out that they didn't know who one of their best students was. But the other day Hyung Soo asked me for advice regarding the whole stairs incident, and then after that Antonio came in here to talk about you two, although he seemed to think Tina's boyfriend was Alfred."

"Oh…" he seemed not to know what to say.

"Wait, why did Antonio come and talk to you?" Tina joined in, confused. "He's not related to you like Hyung Soo and I are…"

"It's my job aru." I grinned, pointing at the name plate at my desk, which all three students seemed to have missed. "I'm the Guidance Counselor."

* * *

**Epic win for me:**

I finally figured it out, guys! If I write the story during the classes that I don't pay attention in anyways instead of playing spider solitaire on my laptop, then I can get chapters out more regularly! :D

I'm just gonna do a direct copypasta of my teachers' names roster that I made up for World Academy so that nobody gets confused:

Rome – Alejandro Vargas (Principal, Arts, Latin)

Germania – Leopold Beilschmidt (Vice Principal [Disciplinary], Music Director)

Ancient Greece – Athena Karpusi (Philosophy, TOK)

Ancient Egypt – Hatshepsut Hassan (Biology, Anatomy & Physiology, Chemistry, Nurse)

Turkey – Sadiq Adnan (Modern History)

Magyar – Stephen Csontváry (Gym, Ancient History)

Celts – Brigid Kirkland (Literature, Language Arts)

Balts – Galinda Aestii (Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, etc Mathematics)

General Winter – Ushanka Zima (Psychology, Forensics)

China – Wang Yao (Student Council Moderator, Guidance Counselor)

Not much happened in this chapter…Well, not much of the original plotline I had planned out. This little Grieta's interview part wasn't supposed to be this long but it ended up as its own chapter anyways…


	15. Chapter 12: For You

Chapter 12: For You

"Wake up, sleepyhead~!" Grieta sang while shaking me awake.

"Hnn…what time is it?" I asked, rubbing my eyes. It seemed earlier than usual and I had the vague notion that it was still the weekend, if I wasn't mistaken.

"It's 7:15." My roommate responded, drawing the curtain open and letting light stream into the room.

"…And why are you waking me up so early?" I questioned, swinging my legs around the side of my bed and starting to climb down the top bunk.

"So you can make sandwiches." She said simply. But when I shot her a confused look, still half-asleep, she explained further. "It's Sunday. The boys have their games today."

"Oh…oh!" I understood suddenly. I hurried to grab my toiletries and clothes, practically running out of the room. But before I had completely left, I heard Grieta say to herself "Today is going to be a fun breakfast!" I didn't have time to ponder what she meant as I rushed to finish my morning routine earlier than usual. Twenty minutes later, I returned to our dorm room to leave my things from earlier. Grieta had already left to go get breakfast, but I headed towards the Home Economics room instead. The school lets students use the classroom facilities during weekends, making it possible for me to make lunch boxes and sandwiches when it was game day. But while I had hardly begun laying out enough pieces of bread on the counter, I heard a soft knock on the door.

"Hey," It was Matthew. "I knew I'd find you in here."

"G-good morning." I said, wanting to laugh at myself when I realized my heart skipped a beat. We had been spending so much time together that I thought it was funny how I still got lovestruck whenever he entered a room. "How'd you know I was here?"

"Al always mentioned that you made sandwiches for him during game days." Matthew explained, walking over next to me.

"Yeah, he always complained about being hungry during games," I remembered. "And he can't very well just leave the field to go get a hotdog."

"Um, so…I assume you're gonna go watch his baseball game, then?" Matthew asked while I continued to lay ham and tomato slices on the white bread.

"I always do." I answered without thinking, not noticing his weak smile because I was still dealing with the sandwiches. "Hey wait," I said, realizing something. "How come I never saw you during any of Alfred's games?"

"I'm on the hockey team." He said.

"Yes, you said that before…"

"And we have matches too—"

"—on Sundays…" I finished for him. We were silent for a moment and then everything fell into place in my head. "Oh, Matthew! I'm so sorry! I didn't realize that! I could jus—"

"It's fine, Tina." He smiled, already expecting it. It still bothered me how comfortable Matthew was at being forgotten. "Just go to the baseball game."

"But I—"

"You can't just stop going all of a sudden just because of me." He stated simply.

"No, I want to go to your hockey game." I told him. I felt bad for not thinking that Matthew had games too earlier, but I couldn't help that my brain was wired to prepare for baseball sandwiches on Sunday mornings. "And I mean that." I added, looking straight into his eyes so he knew I wasn't just saying it.

"Really?" He asked, not expecting my genuine desire.

"Really. I've never seen a hockey game before, and I heard you were really good at it too!" I explained, interest building up.

"Oh," Matthew was surprised again. "From who?"

"This one time I bumped into these two blond juniors at the library. One was kind of scary-looking and the other guy was really nice. I overheard them mentioning how they lost against you in a hockey game once."

"Haha, that's Berwald and Tino." Matthew explained. "And Berwald isn't very scary at all. That's just how his face looks."

"I think that's what Tino said to me before too!" And we both burst into laughter.

… … … … …

I was really excited this morning when I realized it was Sunday. Kuya Alfred was gonna have a game again today and I get to watch! It's a good thing soccer games and track meets are both on different days than baseball. Each game day only has two sports going on: one indoor and another outdoor. But Sunday is for baseball since the sport Kuya Alfred plays has gotta be more interesting than whatever is happening indoors.

After getting dressed for the day, I rushed over to the cafeteria to get Kuya Alfred some burgers before he got here. He usually doesn't have a lot of time to eat before games. It's a good thing Ate Tina always brings him sandwiches he sneaks bites of in between innings.

"Yo, Juan!" yelled Kuya Alfred, entering the cafeteria in all his glory. He saw me holding his tray of food and came over to me.

"Hey Kuya Alfred! Are you ready for today?" I asked, handing him his tray while getting a couple burgers for myself.

"I'm always ready!" he exclaimed, leading the way to our usual table. Grieta was already sitting down next to her brothers. Feli would be here later on once he finishes hiding from Ludwig making him jog in the mornings. As we sat down, I saw Ate and her boyfriend enter the cafeteria. Of course she was carrying the usual small basket that she puts Kuya Alfred's sandwiches in, but it confused me that she went to get food before going to our table. Ate Tina usually just gets a hotdog or something during the game.

"So, what are the plans for today?" Grieta asked the table, which I didn't understand.

"You're all gonna watch me win the baseball game, obviously!" Kuya Alfred declared, beaming at everyone present. I was about to agree with him when Ate spoke.

"Actually, um, Matthew has a hockey game today too" she began. "So I'm gonna go watch his game today." The moment she spoke those words I looked to Kuya Alfred first. His smile stayed plastered on his face, but the sparkle in his eyes seemed to dim. I wondered if anyone else saw, but Ate was too busy trying not to blush while Matthew held her hand under the table. Ew.

"But you always go t—" I started saying, but Kuya Alfred interrupted me.

"Oh yeah!" he said with realization. "It's too bad I can't go see your game Mattie, but at least you have Tina." Kuya Alfred might not have noticed it, but he sounded disappointed.

"We'll try to head over to the baseball game if Matthew's match ends early." Ate Tina assured.

"Yeah," Matthew agreed, smiling at Ate. "And here's your sandwiches by the way," he said, handing Kuya Alfred the small basket over the table.

"Hmm?" Kuya Alfred said, noticing it was a bit heavier than usual. "There's more sandwiches in here than before."

"Yeah, Matthew helped me out this morning." Ate explained. Kuya Alfred just nodded, seemingly ending the conversation. But after staring at his plate of three burgers (he had only eaten two of what I gave him), Kuya Alfred suddenly stood up and announced that he had to get to his game soon. Although a bit startled, everyone at the table agreed and started shuffling and getting ready to leave.

"Are you going to be okay?" I followed Kuya Alfred after he got up from our table. He seemed surprised for a second, but then he held up the basket.

"I'll be fine, Juan." He smiled, in my opinion, weakly (although I doubt Kuya Alfred was ever weak). "I have delicious sandwiches made by my lil' bro and my—" he stopped suddenly.

"Ate Tina." I said for him after a second of silence.

"Yeah!" he agreed too fast. "Anyways, I gotta go stretch or something before the game starts." Kuya Alfred said, ruffling my hair as we left to go to the field. Sometimes I wonder if Kuya Alfred even understands himself…

… … … … …

That git. He's overexerting himself. The sophomore team is winning so I don't understand why the daft kid keeps swinging the bat so hard and pitching the ball so furiously. And he keeps looking up here, but not exactly at me or anyone else even. I really don't get Alfred at all. Or Tina's freshman brother either. He's cheering louder than usual, but sometimes the boy makes the most worried looks. I guess he notices how Alfred is being more of an idiot than usual in today's game. He kept taking his baseball cap off, running his hand through his hair, and replacing the cap, which is something he only does when they're losing. But they weren't.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked aloud at nobody in particular.

"He's…missing something today." Juan suddenly turned to me, sitting in the row behind him. I wasn't sure what he meant until I saw that the seat next to him was empty. Tina wasn't there.

"Is she late, then?" I asked, confused. She was usually here, cheering just as loud as Juan when she thought Alfred wasn't looking.

"She's at the hockey game." Juan answered. Part of him looked like he wanted to tell someone something important, but at the same time he seemed unsure.

"Why is she all the way over— Oh." I remembered that she had recently become Matthew's girlfriend. There's been quite a fuss among the girls about that, apparently. I let out a disappointed chuckle; that was hardly a reason for Alfred to get all worked up for. Juan gave a weak smile and nod before he turned back around to watch the game. He then proceeded to cheer, enough for both himself and his sister.

… … … … …

Wow, I've never seen Tina like this! I didn't think tagging along with her to watch Matthew's hockey game would be this interesting. She's sitting at the edge of her seat and her eyes are practically sparkling, haha! It's so adorable~ She was never like this watching Alfred's baseball games before, but then again this is her first time at a hockey game.

But I _am_ a little worried about Matt… The sophomore team is winning against the seniors, but Matthew seems to be having a hard time. He's barely dodged a hit from Ivan Braginski when I felt some people in the row behind us get up. It was Ekaterina Braginskaya and Eduard Von Bock! Oooh, Ivan's sister and one of his followers sneaking off together? This I gotta see!

"Uh, I'm gonna take a little bathroom break, kay Tina?" I said, although my roommate was very absorbed in the game.

"Mmhmm." she replied without taking her eyes off the rink. I followed Ekaterina and Eduard out when I realized they were just going to talk in the hallway outside. They'd see me if I went into the hallway with them, so I stayed by the door.

"Don't you think Ivan being a little scary?" Ekaterina asks, whispering louder than she thinks she is.

"You mean scarier than usual?" Eduard points out, making the joking statement seem serious.

"Da, I guess," the Ukrainian admits "…Don't you think we should tell him that we're—" she tries to say, more determined.

"Kat, please," the younger man pleads. "Eventually we'll tell him we're going out, but he's been more stressed than usual and I don't think he'll take well to us being together." He's right about that. Ivan wouldn't like the idea of his older sister going out with a sophomore, let alone one he feels personally in charge of.

"But he's being so violent with Matthew!" she says, no longer whispering. She's concerned about Matt? I'd heard this rumor once that she liked him, but Ekaterina isn't one to go past shy side-glances and Matthew might have been just as dense as his brother, or maybe just scared of Ivan.

"And that has anything to do with us how…?" Eduard asks, genuinely confused.

"Ivan knew that I liked him," the university student started. The rumors were right! "But I'm with you now, and Matthew's with Tina."

"TinaAAHH!" I begin to ask myself about my friend's involvement with this when I feel something sharp push me in the back.

"What are you doing eavesdropping on my family?" I hear eerily from behind me. Turning around as fast as can I find out it's Natalia Alfroskaya, Ivan's clingy little sister. She had poked me with her finger..? I swear it felt like a knife! Eduard and Ekaterina, just as surprised as I am, turn to us.

"I didn't hear anything!" I say immediately. "I'm just on my way to the bathroom." I quickly explain, walking away as fast as I can. I don't want to _deal_ with this drama, just know about it… By the time I get back from pretending to be in the bathroom, everyone else is also there. The points are leaning towards Matthew's team and it seems impossible for the other to catch up. There's only a couple minutes left so everything should be fine, yet Tina's even more absorbed in the game. I realize why when I noticed how injured Matthew seems.

"Tina, what happened to Matt while I was gone?"

"Crashing" she says without looking at me, still concentrating. "Ivan keeps crashing into him." I cheer for Matthew and his team while she continues to silently, though intensely, support her boyfriend. The moment the game ended, Tina burst out of her seat and practically ran to the Canadian.

"Are you okay?" Tina asked, worried, as she reached for her boyfriend's hand. He was about to say he was fine when she grabbed his left hand, sending pain shooting through his wrist.

"O-ow!" Matthew practically yelled. The Filipina sat him down on one of the seats and began examining his hand.

"We've gotta use RICE" I heard Tina mumble.

"Rice…?" he asked. "What does that have to do with me straining my wrist?"

"You didn't strain your wrist, Matthew. Ivan sprained it" she corrected. "And RICE stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation. Don't move it too much."

"Maybe we should bring him to the clinic?" I suggested. As much as Tina is amazing at first aid (from patching up the various scrapes and bruises from the usual suspects: Alfred, Juan, Feliciano…), the pair looked at me, agreeing. Mama Hassan would probably do a better job at treating whatever happened to Matt's wrist, along with the rest of his injuries—although she wouldn't be as worried or loving while doing it. But on our way out, Tina checked her watch and left Matthew to my care.

"Bring him to the clinic," she instructed, rushed. "I just have to go get something first." Then Tina went the opposite way from the clinic, towards the outside sports fields.

… … … … …

"This is great!" Juan yelled as he ran towards me. The game had just ended and my team obviously won, but I felt more tired than usual (which makes absolutely no sense since baseball is like breathing to me!). But he was right; this _is_ great…Yeah. "You were awesome as always, Kuya Alfred!"

"Thanks Juan!" I say, remembering to smile despite my fatigue. We continued to walk back indoors, but I tried to delay in case it was taking Tina, Matt, and Grieta a while to get down from the bleachers. They might've sat down somewhere higher since I didn't see them with Juan. "Where are the others?"

"Grieta texted me and said they'd meet us by the cafeteria" the younger boy explained. But they said they would come watch if the hockey game ended sooner (which it usually does)… Did the baseball game go too fast? Either way, we continued to walk to our destination, passing Coach Steve who was selling lollipops like he always does after baseball games. I thought about getting myself an apple-flavored one, but I kept remembering how Tina would chastise me for it every other time since it was "counterproductive to exercise and then just eat candy right afterwards." I laughed to myself a bit, noticing Juan nodding in my direction, like he understood why (but it's not like there's anything to agree with). When we reached the cafeteria, we found only Grieta there.

"Tina and Matt are in the clinic" she said as soon as she saw us walk up.

"They're alone together?" Juan asked, incredulously, but Grieta gave him a firm (for her) look telling him that this was nothing to interfere with.

"Mama Hassan's there anyways," she dismissed, ending the conversation.

"Hey! I'll go check up on them, then," I quickly said, already walking towards the clinic. Grieta knew better than to stop me once I've started going, although it's not like I'm doing anything that warrants stopping… "Don't wanna worry Juan over here." Once I was out of their sight, I found myself walking faster and faster. I didn't even realize I was running until I had stopped in front of the clinic door, panting. I quickly collected myself (but I always look good anyways, haha) and opened the door without knocking.

"No, Matthew, hold your hand a bit higher!" Tina told my little bro, giggling. She was holding a cold compress to his left wrist, both of them standing by the desk. They weren't doing anything! I mean, it's not like they would be… But I felt some unexpected relief anyways.

"Wait, where's Mama Hassan?" I asked, getting Mattie and Tina's attention.

"Oh, she wasn't here," Matt began explaining. "But Tina knew where everything was, so we were fine."

"I've borrowed supplies from Mama Hassan one too many times," she said to me, but turned to smile at Matt for a moment.

"Uh, okay then" I didn't really know what to say. Suddenly I felt like I interrupted something (but that doesn't make any sense). "I guess I'll go check the faculty room or something. She's probably there. I figure I should tell her you guys used some of her stuff so she doesn't, like, freak out or anything later on." But before I could walk out of the door, someone grabbed my right shoulder and pain surged through my side. It was Tina.

"You've hurt yourself" she stated, looking up at me the way she always does when I'd gotten anything more than a small bruise: concerned. She pulled me towards a chair and motioned for me to sit.

"Nah, I'm fine—AAH!" I tried to tell her I was okay, but then Tina had poked me just hard enough to get me to sit on the chair, sideways so that the back of my chair as to my left. Then she began pushing parts of my shoulder with her whole palm, in a way that seemed more soothing than painful.

"You've strained your shoulder and abdomen, Alfred" she said, getting up to get another cold compress before I could deny the ache in my right side.

"Is that what Mattie has too?" I asked.

"No, you strained your side, I sprained my wrist" Matt corrected me.

"Ivan sprained it" Tina contributed, while pressing the cold pack on the top right of my back and massaging, seeming to soothe the pain out.

"What's the difference?" I wondered aloud, confused. "Wait, Ivan—?" What'd that jerk do now?

"He was being unfairly violent." Tina answered before Matt could. "Were you pushing yourself too hard during the game."

"It's baseball" I said at the same time Mattie said "It's hockey." "It was nothing" we said in unison, making Tina smile.

"We've gotta use RICE" she said.

"Rice…?" I asked. "What does that have to do with me spraining my shoulder?"

"You didn't sprain your shoulder, Alfred. You strained it" she corrected. "And RICE stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation." This time Matt smiled. She must've said the same thing to him… As we were heading back to the cafeteria, where Grieta was probably holding back Juan after we failed to come back sooner, Tina reached into her pocket and handed me something. It was an apple-flavored lollipop. "For you."

"Woah, thanks!" I was surprised she got me one after all those times she told me not to get myself one. But when would she have gotten it? Coach Steve only sells them at the end of baseball games…

"She went right after the hockey game" Matt said after I hadn't taken the lollipop. "Before going to the clinic." Tina was still facing me, offering the lollipop to me. Mattie nodded, and suddenly I felt like it'd be okay to take it (although there wasn't any reason _not_ to).

"I didn't think you'd remember" I said, finally.

"I wouldn't have forgotten" she smiled, and the three of us continued to meet up with our friends.

* * *

**Not dead yet!:**

Thanks so much to anyone who still bothers to read this story! I know I haven't updated in over a year, but this story was constantly in my mind and I was just way too busy with school (and all the procrastinating). But now that I'm almost done with this semester, I'll try to update more often. I wonder if this chapter looks a little weird, though... Half of it was written around nine months ago, haha. There's not any details about either baseball or hockey since I barely know anything about baseball and even less about hockey (but I was sure enough about the violence). I only just noticed how it might be weird that Eduard and Ekaterina are going out since he's a sophomore and she's in university (college), but I always thought they'd be really sweet as a couple~

Ah, RICE… I learned about that last year, so I had to research it to write about it now, haha. Coach Steve is Stephen Csontváry (Magyar), by the way. I made him the Gym teacher, so I figured he'd be a sports coach; of course, now that I think about it, he'd probably rather watch the hockey game since he'd like the violence more. But I figure he likes baseball too—and apparently selling lollipops? Don't even ask where I got that random idea…


End file.
